I would have saved you
if I could
but born
1100 years too late
I sigh
at the tragedy
of your too brief life
and the executioner’s axe
that cleaved
your lovely head
from the poems
you should have
written
On a Visit to Ch’ung Chén Taoist Temple I See in the South Hall the List of Successful Candidates in the Imperial Examinations by Yü Hsüan-chi
Cloud capped peaks fill the eyes
In the Spring sunshine.
Their names are written in beautiful characters
And posted in order of merit.
How I hate this silk dress
That conceals a poet.
I lift my head and read their names
In powerless envy.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth & Ling Chung
Answering Li Ying Who Showed Me His Poems About Summer Fishing by Yü Hsüan-chi
Though we liverd in the same lane,
A whole year we deidn’t meet,
Until his tender phrases touched this aging girl.
I broke a new cinnamon branch.
The Tao nature cheats ice and snow.
The enlightened heart laughs at summer silks.
Footsteps climb the River of Clouds,
Lost beyond roads in a sea of mist.
translated by Geoffrey Waters
The Taxi by Amy Lowell
When I go away from you
The world beats dead
Like a slackened drum.
I call out for you against the jutted stars
And shout into the ridges of the wind.
Streets coming fast,
One after the other,
Wedge you away from me
And the lamps of the city prick my eyes
So that I can no longer see your face.
Why should I leave you,
To wound myself upon the sharp edges of the night?
For Hidden Mist Pavilion by Yü Hsüan-chi
Spring flowers and autumn moon enter poems.
Bright days and clear nights are fit for idle gods.
Raised in vain the pearl screen, never lowered.
Long ago, I moved my couch to face the mountain.
translated by Geoffrey Waters
Rhyming a Friend’s Poem by Yü Hsüan-chi
What can melt a traveler’s grief?
Opening your letter I see the words in your fine hand.
Rain sprinkles a thousand peaks,
Tartar winds bleach ten thousand leaves.
Morning, word by word, I see the light blue jade;
Evening, page by page, I hum beneath my quilt.
I hide this letter in a scented box,
And when I’m sad, I take it out again.
translated by Geoffrey Waters
End of the World by Else Lasker-Schüler
There is a crying in the world,
As if the good Lord had died,
And the lead shadow, which falls down,
Suffers gravely.
Come, let us hide nearer each other . . .
Life lies in every heart
As in coffins.
You! let us kiss deeply—
A longing throbs against the planet
On which we must die.
translated by Willis Barnstone & Michael Gillespie
A Love Song by Else Lasker-Schüler
Come to me in the night—we shall sleep closely together.
I am so tired, lonely from being awake.
A strange bird already sang in the dark early morning,
As my dream still wrestled with itself and me.
Flowers open before all the springs
Taking on the color of your eyes . . .
Come to me in the night on seven-starred shoes
And love shall be wrapped up until late in my tent.
Moons rise from the dusty trunk of heaven.
We shall make love quietly like two rare animals
In the high reeds behind this world.
translated by Michael Gillespie
Sandy’s sister
funny
I can’t recall
her name
but I still see
her passing through
the yard
on her way
to your back door
we all wanted
you to join
just so when
we met
at your house
we could see
her walking surely
as if we weren’t
there
and in a way
we weren’t
just stone faced boys
watching a face
that launched ships
for all of us
Yes by Tess Gallagher
Now we are like that flat cone of sand
in the garden of the Silver Pavilion in Kyoto
designed to appear only in moonlight.
Do you want me to mourn?
Do you want me to wear black?
Or like moonlight on whitest sand
to use your dark, to gleam, to shimmer?
I gleam. I mourn.
Leonard Durso 