Away and away I sail in my light boat;
My heart leaps with a great gust of joy.
Throuh the leafless branches I see the temple in the wood;
Over the dwindling stream the stone bridge towers.
Down the grassy lanes sheep and oxen pass;
In the misty village cranes and magpies cry.
Back in my home I drink a cup of wine
And need not fear the greed of the evening wind.
translated by Arthur Waley
Month: October 2023
How I Sailed on the Lake till I came to the Eastern Stream by Lu Yu
Of Spring water,—thirty or forty miles:
In the evening sunlight,—three or four houses.
Youths and boys minding geese and ducks:
Women and girls tending mulberries and hemp.
The place,—remote: their coats and scarves old:
The year,—fruitful: their talk and laughter gay.
The old wanderer moors his flat boat
And staggers up the bank to pluck wisteria flowers.
translated by Arthur Waley
from AnnaMaria at Vento del giorno
Occasional Verse by Wang Ts’an
Rows of carriages, grooms at rest—
A festive scene by the green water-margin:
The dark orchids release glorious fragrance,
The lotus radiates a red glow.
A hundred birds, how they flap and flutter,
With winged tumult the flocks chase each other.
“Cast the nets, pull in the deep-hiding fish;
Draw back the crossbow, down the high flying ones”—
The sun is already hidden in the west,
With such happiness, who thinks of going home?
translated by Ronald C. Miao
from Boudoir Thoughts, Four Selections: 3 by Hsü Kan
The drifting clouds, distant and vast,
I wish they could convey my message.
Yet floating above, they are beyond reach,
Vainly we trust our loving thoughts to them.
When people separate they always reunite,
You alone, sir, have not returned.
Since you went away,
My bright mirror lies dim, untended.
My love for you is as the flowing waters,
How can there ever be an end?
translated by Ronald C. Miao
Farewell to a Friend by Hsüeh T’ao
The water country’s reeds and rushes, night, covered with frost;
The moon’s coldness, the mountains’ cast share a bleak, pale blue.
Who can say, from this night on, a thousand li away,
My dreams of you, dim as the distant frontier?
tranateds by Eric W. Johnson
from On Chao Ch’ang’s Flower Paintings: 2: Sunflower by Su Shih (Su Tung-p’o)
Too fragile to endure the heat of a summer day,
Yet pretty enough to cheer the cool morning—
Head stooped, a golden cup raised high,
Reflecting the splendor of the sun’s first light.
A heart of sandalwood color forms its own halo;
Its leaves of kingfisher sheen grow dense and prickly.
Of all who sketched from still life since ancient times,
Who could have excelled the art of Chao Ch’ang?
Fresh morning makeup, or drunken stupor at noon:
Its true likeness holds the yin and the yang.
Just look within this flower and its stem,
There you’ll find the fragrance of wind and dew.
translated by Irving Y. Lo
9/9, Out Drinking on Dragon Mountain by Li Po
9/9, out drinking on Dragon Mountain,
I’m an exile among yellow blossoms smiling.
Soon drunk, I watch my cap tumble in wind,
dance in love—a guest the moon invites.
translated by David Hinton
Thinking of East Mountain by Li Po
It’s forever since I faced East Mountain.
How many times have roses bloomed there,
or clouds returned, and thinned away,
a bright moon setting over whose home?
translated by David Hinton
taking a cue from Li Po: regret rests now in this heart: for JEP
this uneasy exile
standing hat on head
by a rented car
home that day
but restless still
to return
to points east
6000 miles
over land ocean land again
will it ever end
and how regret rests
now in this heart
for not knowing
that parting
would be our last
Leonard Durso 