So I’m talking to Pasquale as he’s driving me to the village my great grandfather lived in and where my grandfather was born and we’re talking about driving and his sister Gilda who is a special person in my eyes. We both agree she terrifies us and I admit to holding on to the side of the car while my life flashed before me as she swerved in and out of NYC traffic cursing everyone else on the road.

Then the subject of her stubbornness came up and I said being stubborn was part of the Italian character. Pasquale objected to this and said no, it was just Gilda. Then I asked him if he was stubborn. He shrugged (another trademark of Italians) and said of course. So I said my point exactly. Then he countered with it’s a family trait. Then I said of my family, too, and of…

lightning doesn’t strike twice
in the same place
then it did
smoke and ashes
scars that don’t fade

For an unemployed gentleman bound for Wuling
a first-rsate sword is worth a ton of gold
I remove this in parting and give it to you
a simple piece of my heart

translated by Red Pine

Again last night
in a country inn
I heard a crow cawing all night.

Today
where shall I be bound?
How many more miles to go?

Up to the mountains,
onto the plains?
No, no place beckons.

No more talk.
To my home in the far north
trains and boats travel.

Tell me,
wild goose in the skies,
is there a sky-road that you travel so freely?

Wild goose in the skies,
look at me standing
at the crossroads.

The road radiates
in many directions
yet none of them can I choose.

translated by Jaihiun Kim & Ronald B. Hatch

The road to Shuh is more difficult to climb than to climb the steep blue heaven.
I shrug my shoulders and heave a long sigh–gazing into the west.

translated by Shigeyoshi Obata

The sky spreads higher and more blue
every day I gaze on it,
the blue turning always
to a sigh.

translated by Jaihiun Kim & Ronald B. Hatch

is what you called me
blamed it on
all the trouble you caused
that I had to clean up
which of course
was considerable
I suppose it was love
though now
I’m not so sure
looking at this
from a decade or more
beyond
hindsight
and all the cliches
that conjures
I did think though
you were worth it
but how was I to know
you had so little faith
in yourself
and settled for
what I predicted
the path of least resistance
and so these emails
from across the world
of second
or even third
thoughts
are not unexpected
but also not welcomed
life goes on
and you and I both
went with it
in totally different directions
and now the sighs
though still there
are not the same
certainly not
more than resignation
of a new
old world
on replay
mixed with a bit
of contentment

They amputated
your thighs off my hips.
As far as I’m concerned
they are all surgeons. All of them.

They dismantled us
each from the other.
As far as I’m concerned
they are all engineers. All of them.

A pity. We were such a good
and loving invention.
An airplane made from a man and wife.
Wings and everything.
We hovered a little above the earth.

We even flew a little.

On the wall of a house on which
bricks were painted I saw
visions of God.

A sleepless night which makes others’ heads ache
made flowers open up in my brain.

And he who was lost like a dog
will be found like a man and come back.

Love is not the last room:
There are others along
the long corridor that has no end.