Seeing moonlight here at my bed,
and thinking it’s frost on the ground.
I look up, gaze at the mountain moon,
then back, dreaming of my old home.
translated by David Hinton
poetry
Lines Three, Five, Seven Words Long by Li Bai
Autumn wind clear,
autumn moon bright,
fallen leaves gather in piles, then scatter,
and crows settling-in, cold, startle away.
Will we ever see, ever even think of each other again?
This night, this moment: impossible to feel it all.
untitled poem by the Japanese Emperor Yozei (reigned 877-884)
Falling from the ridge
Of high Tsukuba,
The Minano River
At last gathers itself,
Like my love, into
A deep, still pool.
The Key by Ceyhun Atuf Kansu
Look! I am but a road to you
The road you tread every morning
I am a tree to you, the acacia
In whose shadow you wait for a bus.
Tell me who you are
Let me write at the corners of streets
I’ve lost myself in your town
Your name is my street.
Tell me where your house is
Do you like afternoons or evenings?
Let me knock on your door
Unlock and show me the secret garden.
Give me the padlock of your eyes
Let me close us off from the world
Look, this is my key
Unlock yourself, there is love about to emerge
Please do not hide it.
translated by Ahu Dereli & Jean Carpenter Efe
Love Song Of A Young Man: a Native American poem from the Pacific Northwest
Whenever I eat,
I eat the pain of your love, mistress.
Whenever I get sleepy,
I dream of my love, my mistress.
Whenever I lie on my back in the house,
I lie on the pain of your love, mistress.
For whenever I walk about,
I step on the pain of your love, mistress.
translated by Frank Boas
Untitled Poem by Yamabe No Akahito
The mists rise over
The still pools at Asuka.
Memory does not
Pass away so easily.
Asuka gawa
Kawa yodo sarazu
Tatsu kiri no
Omoi sugu beki
Koi ni aranaku ni
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
I Cannot Forget You: a Makah love poem
No matter how hard I try to forget you,
you always come back to my thoughts.
When you hear me singing
I am really crying for you.
from Letter by Yeduda Amichai
To live is to build a ship and a harbor
at the same time. And to complete the harbor
long after the ship has sunk.
translated by Yehuda Amichai & Ted Hughes
Untitled Poem by A.E. Housman
Oh, when I was in love with you,
Then I was clean and brave,
And miles around the wonder grew
How well did I behave.
And now the fancy passes by,
And nothing will remain,
And miles around they’ll say that I
Am quite myself again.
A Deep-Sworn Vow By W.B. Yeats
Others because you did not keep
That deep-sworn vow have been friends of mine;
Yet always when I look death in the face,
When I clamber to the heights of sleep,
Or when I grow excited with wine,
Suddenly I meet your face.
Leonard Durso 