Dew drips from tall trees on a clear summer night
in the hills to the south a cuckoo calls
the widow next door comforts her child
I turn in bed and wait for the first light

translated by Red Pine

cut loose means
to let go
as in letting go of a person
of a group of people
one’s feelings change
not for the better
or the worse
just different
bar none means
without exception
I cut them loose
bar none
crumbling means
falling apart
not quickly
but gradually
as if termites
infected the house
the walls began to crumble
so that one had to abandon
that particular domicile
or one’s home
the place of residence
negotiations meaning
a compromise
trying to find the middle ground
if at all possible
when people are phony
it means not real, fake
than there can be no relief
or let up
and the only consolation
is a pat on the back
a sorry, sport
better luck next time
doomed means
it is over
to lose forever
whatever one had
or was under the illusion
of having
has become scarce
as in disappeared
leaving…

At last we are getting some cold weather in Sydney.  We don’t have frost on the lower north shore but I hear that it is rampant elsewhere.   So for some of us this poem is timely.

Ai Xing Fu, a poet of the late Song and early Yuan Dynasty era left a large body of work but there is no record of his dates.

Cold Mountain by Ai Xing Fu

The mountain quivers in the wind that flags the wild geese down

Snatching the sound of a fisherman’s cold sporadic song

A stream of frosted leaves runs like the great ape’s blood

Eclipsing the red of the setting sun for miles and miles

(c) Mary Tang 鄧許文蘭 2017

寒山。艾性夫

山影飄搖落雁風，寒歌斷續釣魚翁。

一溪霜葉如猩血，奪盡斜陽十里紅。