Prose books are the show dogs I breed and sell to support my cat.
Month: November 2022
Returning Home after a Trip by Wei Ying-wu
In the past I was glad to come home
but to sadness I now return
entering our closed sunless room
I stifle my grief and write the epitaph
I lift the dark curtain in pain
startled by a cold desolate breeze
our younger daughter doesn’t realize
she still comes into the courtyard to play
I sigh every day feeling older
dazed by the transience of life
my relatives urge me to eat
at the table my tears fall in vain
translated by Red Pine
Chinese proverb
A book is like a garden
carried in the pocket.
Cold Food Days: To My Cousins in the Capital by Wei Ying-wu
My empty rooms are bleak on a rainy day with fire banned
I sit alone and listen to orioles by the river
I’ve had the wine and seen the flowers but think about my cousins
Cold Food Day on Tuling the grass by now is green
translated by Red Pine
NOTE: Cold Food was the name given to a 3 day period in April when fires were banned.
Events on the Huai: To a Dear Friend in Kuangling by Wei Ying-wu
The earlier boat is already faint
I was hoping to cross but it wouldn’t wait
from autumn hills comes the evening bell
it’s raining in Ch’u all the way to the sea
the windblown waves recall our parting
the way I once looked has changed
a lone bird heading southeast
asks the way to Kuangling
translated by Red Pine
4am in Moda: what lingers still: for JEP
here, old friend
5000 miles and more away
you appear still
scotch whiskey
in a glass
ice cubes
bumping shoulders
your deadpan delivery
pinball and burritos at 3am
in bars 3000 miles apart
those Texans you antagonized
mercilessly
tears amid the laughter
the mischief in your eyes
this is what
lingers still
your ghost refusing
to fade into the darkness
one more shot
for to you
to comfort us
both
and to keep the wolves
at bay
while you wait
patiently
for me
to join you
in that honky-tonk bar
in the sky
Entertaining Adjutant Li by Wei Ying-wu
When we were fifteen we both served at court
we climbed the red steps through incense at dawn
we toured the Han Garden in bloom
and bathed on Lishan in the snow
but the Immortal has flown and isn’t expected back
his advisors are scattered assuming they’re alive
meeting you today thinking about the past
one cup makes me happy the next one sad
translated by Red Pine
the two dollars
not worth trying
to salvage
what is lost
pay the two dollars
and move on
Language by Nizar Qabbani
When a man is in love
how can he use old words?
Should a woman
desiring her lover
lie down with
grammarians and linguists?
I said nothing
to the woman I loved
but gathered
love’s adjectives into a suitcase
and fled from all languages.
translated by Lena Jayyusi & Diana Der Hovanessian
Foolishness by Nizar Qabbani
When I wiped you from
the book of memory
I did not know I was striking
out half my life
translated by Lena Jayyusi & Diana Der Hovanessian
Leonard Durso 