In spring, I dream through dawn,
but hear birds everywhere, singing.
O voice of all-night wind snd rain,
do you count the petals that are falling?
translated by Sam Hamill
Author: zdunno03
River Flute by Po Chu-i
Downriver, someone plays
a bamboo flute at midnight.
Note by note, I’m transported
back into my youth at home.
Listening, I feel my thin hair
quickly turning white:
still growing old, still
sleepless, still alone.
translated by Sam Hamill
Alone beside the Autumn River by Li Shang-yin
All spring, my sorrows grew like lotus leaves.
Now they wither as my autumn sadness grows.
Grief is as long and wide as life.
Watch the autumn river. Listen to it flow.
translated by Sam Hamill
“I thought narcissism was about self-love till someone told me there is a flip side to it… It is unrequited self-love.”
from Douglas Moore’S Art of Quotation
“I thought narcissism was about self-love till someone told me there is a flip side to it… It is unrequited self-love.”
From the Heights by Li Shang-yin
I drag my heavy heart
up to these dazzling heights:
this beautiful, beautiful sunset!
And then the onrushing night.
translated by Sam Hamill
from a line by Li Shang-yin: watching you
watching you
cross your legs
always caused a shudder
up my back,
shortness
in my breath
and a longing
in my fingertips
Empty House by Yuan Chen
I leave my empty house at dawn
and ride to my empty office.
I fill the day with busywork.
At nightfall, back to my empty house.
Moonlght seeps through the cracks.
My wick has burned to ash.
My heart lies cold inHsien-yang Road,
under the wheels of a hearse.
translated by Sam Hamill
