this night in dreams
I follow the wind
five thousand miles
then ten
then twenty
searching for you
my love
always searching
for you
to carry you away
on my painted boat
away my love
away
Month: October 2018
Night Rains: to my Wife up North by Li Shang-yin
You ask how long before I come. Still no date set.
The night rains on Mount Pa swell the autumn pool.
When shall we, side by side, trim a candle at the West Window,
And talk back to the time of the night rains on Mount Pa?
translated by A.C. Graham
this longing
the day ends
but not so
this longing
in my heart
“I don’t think inspiration just comes from the sky. I think you have to sit down and you have to work. Sometimes it’s…”
from Douglas Moore’s Art of Quotation
“I don’t think inspiration just comes from the sky. I think you have to sit down and you have to work. Sometimes it’s really hard, and sometimes things come easier, but really you have to show up, you have to get to work, and you have to have determination.”
Tara Donovan, sculptor
another untitled poem by Li Shang-yin
For ever hard to meet, and as hard to part.
Each flower spoils in the failing East wind.
Spring’s silkworms wind till death their heart’s threads:
The wick of the candle turns to ash before its tears dry.
Morning’s mirror’s only care, a change at her cloudy temples:
Saying over a poem in the night, does she sense the chill in the moonbeams?
Not far, from here to Fairy Hill.
Bluebird, be quick now, spy me out the road.
translated by A.C. Graham
“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.”
from Douglas Moore’s Art of Quotation
“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe”
H. G. Wells, writer
Related: Major Climate Report Describes a Strong Risk of Crisis as Early as 2040
Wanderer’s Song by Meng Chiao
The thread in the hand of a kind mother
Is the coat on the wanderer’s back.
Before he left she stitched it close
In secret fear that he would be slow to return.
Who will say that the inch of grass in his heart
Is gratitude enough for all the sunshine of spring?
translated by A.C. Graham
Pien River blocked by Ice by Tu Mu
For a thousand miles along the river, when the ice begins to close,
Harness jades and girdle jaspers tinkle at the jagged edge.
The drift of life’s no different from the water under the ice
Hurrying Eastward day and night while no one notices.
translated by A.C. Graham
Held Up by Head Winds on the Tz’u-hu-chia: Five Poems: the second in the series by Su Tung-p’o
Slimmer and slimmer–my chances of going home;
endless green hills ahead, water touching sky.
Even here a small boat comes selling cakes.
I’m glad to hear there’s a village this side of the mountain.
translated by Burton Watson
from Untitled Love Poem II by Li Shang-yin
hearts shouldn’t try to be flowers
that just keep opening up
for every inch of longing
they make an inch of ashes.
translated by David Young
Leonard Durso 