poised
on the edge
of this world
waiting
for the winds
of change
Month: May 2015
untitled love poem by Li Shang-yin
Coming was an empty promise, you have gone, and left no footprints:
The moonlight slants above the roof, already the fifth watch sounds.
Dreams of remote partings, cries which cannot summon,
Hurrying to finish the letter, ink which will not thicken.
The light of the candle half encloses kingfishers threaded with gold,
The smell of musk comes faintly through embroidered water-lilies.
Young Liu complained that Fairy Hill is far.
Past Fairy Hill, range above range, ten thousand mountains rise.
translated by A.C. Graham
The Retired Official Yuan’s High Pavilion by Tu Mu
The West River’s watershed sounds beyond the sky.
Shadows of pines in front of the studio sweep the clouds flat.
Who shall coax me to blow the long flute
Leaning together on the spring wind with the moonbeams for our toys?
translated by A.C. Graham
but
it’s not
what I
long for
but
at least
the cat
is affectionate
go home
sometimes
home
is not where
you go
but
where
you stay
that and this
there was
that
now
there is
this
standing eight
three
to a round
and one more
to go
boxing
with shadows
as memory
pulls
no punches
this night
You Who by Tekin Gönenç
you who
grow gallows within you
are weeping now leaning
your head against window panes
I know full well
the moon wanders over the night
as the callous city
emerges from its sheath
the child that forsook you
confined in it
and then start endless conflagrations
in the revolving mirrors of your soul
darting looks from every corner
whether you close your eyes
or open them wide
you who
went through so many cross-fires
you who
knew what love is and has been
what you’ve shared
was not a hybrid luminescence
why does this whirlpool
opening to the unknown
force the confines
of the power of imagination
you
pale face
why not let the self you’ve always kept for her
escape through the window
would it be better perhaps
just to shuttle to and fro
at the tip of a clumsy dagger
in the blind alleys of your heart
translated by Ender Gürol
from Yunus Emre whose name graces the building I live in now, here in Maltepe
to find life’s meaning hearts take a hundred paths. . .
translated by Paul Smith
what hope is
I talk
and talk
to you
in my head
and wait
hoping
for an answer
Leonard Durso 