A fisherman’s taking his boat deep across the lake.
My old eyes trace his path all the way, his precise
wavering in and out of view. Then it gets strange:
suddenly he’s a lone goose balanced on a bent reed.
translated by David Hinton
poetry
The Autumn Brook by Hsüeh T’ao
It has turned crystal clear lately
And flows away like a ribbon of smoke
With a music like a ten strınged zither.
The sound penetrates to my pillow,
And turns my mind to past loves,
And won’t let me sleep for melancholy.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth & Ling Chung
Outside My Office, Wandering In Moonlight by Wei Ying-wu
Outside this office, night such luminous depths,
the lovely moon’s a delight wandering with me.
Descending across the river, it comes halfway
adrift on dew-tinged air, then suddenly startles
autumn, scattering color through open forests,
scrawling its disk on the current’s utter clarity.
And reaching mind, it bestows boundless light
all silver-pure azure eluding us to perfection.
translated by David Hinton
from Lady Midnight Songs of the Four Seasons: Autumn 5
Autumn’s cold, the window wide open.
A tilted moon fills the room with light.
It’s midnight, and nothing need be said:
just two smiles behind a gauze curtain.
translated by David Hinton
from Lady Midnight Songs of the Four Seasons: Autumn 4
Autumn’s chill infuses crystalline wind.
A moon drifts heaven’s exquisite depths,
radiant. Lovely women ready winter robes,
ten thousand sticks beating frozen stone.
translated by David Hinton
NOTE: using sticks to beat clothing on special stones in autumn was a ritual women had to show longing for lovers taken far off to war.
from Lady Midnight Songs of the Four Seasons: Autumn 3
Autumn night at the open window
makes bed-curtains float and sway.
I gaze up at the bright moon, send
such love a thousand radiant miles.
translated by David Hinton
from Lady Midnight Songs of the Four Seasons: Autumn 2
Wild geese set out for their southlands,
and city-bred swallows wing northward.
If you’ve lost your way, my far-off love,
just follow the autumn wind back home.
translated by David Hinton
from Lady Midnight Songs of the Four Seasons: Autumn 1
I can’t sleep. The night’s long and
the bright moon so radiant, radiant.
Thinking I hear his scattered voice,
I call back, answering empty skies.
translated by David Hinton
Yellow Blight by Cemal Süreya
My breath is a red bird
In the auburn sky of your hair
When I embrace you
Your legs grow long beyond words
My breath becomes a red horse
I can tell from my burning cheeks
We are destitute our nights are short
Let’s make love at full tilt
translated by Talat S. Halman
The Sea, the Memory, and the Woman by Seyfettin Başcıllar
Everything started again in a harbor
The sea, the memory, and the woman.
Being naked, you were shivering
Your hair had come loose all the way down.
There were no flowers in the pot, no stars,
I didn’t have the money to buy you flowers.
Only the sky was left and a song,
There were patchy clouds in the sky,
You were there, your eyes too;
Besides your eyes were black as could be.
Everything started all over again.
translated by Talat S. Halman
Leonard Durso 