WITH WINE BESIDE A GENTLY FLOWING BROOK—THIS IS BEST;
Withdrawn from sorrow in some quiet nook—this is best;
Our life is like a flower’s that blooms for ten short days,
Bright laughing lips, a friendly fresh-faced look—this is best.
translated by Dick Davis
Month: November 2023
Water from Your Spring by Rumi
What was in that candle’s light
that opened and consumed me so quickly?
Come back, my friend! The form of our love
is not a created form.
Nothing can help me but that beauty.
There was a dawn I remember
when my soul heard something
from your soul. I drank water
from your spring and felt
the current take me.
translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
from Now I’m Homeless by Hafiz
O Beloved, I’ve given up my religion and my worldly goods in order to be
With You, and now I’m homeless and work all day for wine.
If Hafiz dies in the dust of Your doorway, dreaming of Your hair,
He will have lived a full life and died smiling there.
translated by Thomas Rain Crowe
from Look at This Beauty by Hafiz
No one, not even Hafiz, can desribe with words the Great Mystery.
No one knows in which shell the priceless pearl does hide.
translated by Thomas Rain Crowe
Seeing Yong-jae in Dreams by Hwang Hyon
What pains me most on earth
Is to see my friend only in dreams;
Joy lasts only for a moment;
I wake to my long grief again.
Wind blows and bamboo rustles;
Snow casts light on the empty window.
I put on my clothes and step out alone:
Cold sky studded with countless stars.
translated by Sung-Il Lee
I Gave a Party to my Relatives on the Day of Purification: To The Tune “Butterflies Love Flowers”by Li Ch’ing-chao
Tranquil and serene, the night
Seems to last forever.
Yet we are seldom happy.
We all dream of Ch’ang An
And long to take the road back to the capital,
And see this year again the beauty of Spring, come with
Moonlight and shadow on the new flowers.
Although the food is simple, as are the cups,
The wine is good, the plums sour.
That is enough to satisfy us.
We drink and deck our hair with flowers
But do not laugh,
For we and the Spring grow old.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth & Ling Chung
Bad Wine Is Like Bad Men by Su Tung-p’o
Bad wine is like bad men,
deadlier in attack than arrows or knives.
I collapse on the platform;
victory hopeless, truce will have to do.
The old poet carries on bravely,
the Zen master’ words are gentle and profound.
Too drunk to follow what they’re saying,
I’m conscious only of a red and green blur.
I wake to find the moon sinking into the river,
the wind rustling with a different sound.
A lone lamp burns by the altar,
but the two heroes—both have disappeared.
translated by Burton Watson
from Drinking Wine by Su Tung-p’o
In wine I stumbled on unexpected joy.
Now I always have an empty cup in hand.
translated by Burton Watson
on the curb still
there on the curb
in Hollywood
you talk of Franny & Zooey
some scene you’re playing
asking my advice
about the scene
your reading
your life
slipping away
from where I sit
and later I watch
as you walk away
so far away
that I cannot follow
on the curb still
with this hole
in what was
my heart
Leonard Durso 