The Middlewesterner

AFTER LIU TSUNG-YUAN'S
"MORNING WALK IN AUTUMN
TO SOUTH VALLEY PASSING
AN ABANDONED VILLAGE"

Autumn has turned.
The frost is heavy.
I rise early

and walk the valley.
Yellowed leaves
cover the bridge

above the river.
Aging trees,
a deserted village,

some few dead flowers.
A secluded spring
you can barely hear.

I've already forgotten
what startled
the shy young deer.

~

AFTER LI PO'S
"QUESTION AND ANSWER
IN THE MOUNTAINS"

Go ahead, ask me
why I live here.

I will answer
with only a smile.

I am a man
at ease, content

as peach blossoms
floating on water.

There are many worlds
not like yours.

~

AFTER TU FU'S
"TRAVELING AT NIGHT"

A small wind
in the grasses
along the river,

my boat alone
in the darkness.
The stars hang

all the way
down onto
the wide plains.

The moon leaps
the universe.
Poetry has not

made me famous.
Now I'm old
and failing

and I've had to
quit my job.
With the wind

against me,
I'm only
a sand gull

caught somewhere
between earth
and heaven.

~

AFTER LADY NIGHT'S
"SONG OF SPRING"

Spring woods,
and the flowers
are lovely.

The birds, though,
are making
sad sounds.

And the wind
has a mind
of its own:

it blows my silk
skirt open.

~

AFTER MENG HAO-JAN'S
"SPRING SUNRISE"

I wake after
sunrise. Every-

where the birds are
noisy. I heard

the wind and rain
all night knocking

down the flowers--
who knows how many.

~