Monday, December 30, 2019

AFTER THE CHINESE MASTERS 


THINKING OF HAN YU

A goose for
supper, then.

"Which to slaughter?"
the boy asks.

"Kill the one
who cannot sing."

~

AFTER TWO LINES
BY YUAN CHEN

The river wind
sings in the trees

as in a dream.
I sit and watch

the sun come up
and think how far

we are now from
one another.

~

AFTER "LATE SPRING"
BY YUAN CHEN

Birds talking and stirring the dust;
wind closing the gate at sunset;

petals falling off the flowers:
here I sit, alone and lonely.

~

AFTER TWO LINES FROM
TU MU'S "THE CRANE"

All day alone,
the crane, sad

with only
his shadow.

~

AFTER SSU-K'UNG T'U'S
'IN THE COUNTRY'

All night under
a shelter of
pines I sit
drinking wine

and thinking
the rain is
flower petals
falling all

around me,
thinking why would
that old monk

I talked to want
to see someone
like me again.

~


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