On Hearing Someone Sing a Poem of Yuan Chen by Po Chü-i: Written long after Chen’s death

No new poems his brush will trace:
Even his fame is dead.
His old poems are deep in dust
At the bottom of boxes and cupboards.
Once lately, when someone was singing,
Suddenly I heard a verse–
Before I had time to catch the words
A pain had stabbed my heart.

translated by Arthur Waley

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