from Douglas Moore’s Art of Quotation
“One looks, looks long, and the world comes in.”
-– Joseph Campbell, author
Image: Keegan Houser
Song by Ch’in Kuan
Pleading eyebrows, intoxicating eyes!
When I first looked at you, I knew my heart was lost.
Do you remember that time in the west–
your billowing, cloudlike hair,
your best silk stockings, your lilac tongue?
You said to me, “When was I treated so well?”
But before the clouds and rain,
east winds blew everything away.
I’m grieving still,
but heaven doesn’t hear.
translated by Sam Hamill
mist of time
there is laughter
children’s voices
rise and fall
in the morning mist
my mind drifts
hearing other voices
in the mist
of time
so long ago
“You can tell the size of a man by the size of the things that bother him.”
from Douglas Moore’s Art of Quotation
“You can tell the size of a man by the size of the things that bother him.”
Adlai Stevenson, diplomat
“A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.”
from Douglas Moore’s Art of Quotation
“A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.”
A Country Road by Li Ho
Fragrant fireweed grows in the rain.
Tonight, August nears the mountains,
they bloom in lonely places.
Moss and grass slowly overtake
this stony rutted road
I craved eight years ago.
translated by Sam Hamill
Lu-lung Village, Autumn by Hsu Hsuan
Refusing worldly worries,
I stroll among village strollers.
Pine winds sing, the evening village
smells of grass, autumn in the air.
A lone bird roams down the sky.
Clouds roll across the river.
You want to know my name?
A hill. A tree. An empty drifting boat.
translated by Sam Hamill
To the Tune: In the Hills by Hsueh Chao-yun
At Ch’ang-men, the grass is green,
jade stairs shimmering under dew.
Mist softens the moonlight.
East winds drown a sorrowful flute.
The water clock marks time.
Outside, orioles greet the dawn.
I wake in the night
Grief-stricken, in tears,
exhausted, just exhausted.
My grip crushes my robe.
Once again, my mind settles over you
like dust settles over our scrolls.
translated by Sam Hamill
Running from Trouble by Tu Fu
Barely fifty, but already my face is old, hair white.
I traveled this whole coast fleeing the state.
Rough cloth saved my shivering bones
as I roamed the awful cold.
Thus began the years of my disease.
Everywhere, people were mud and ash.
Between heaven and earth,
there’s nowhere a body is safe.
I see my wife and children follow.
We sigh for mutual sorrows.
My old home gone to weeds,
and all my neighbors scattered,
we may never find the road back home.
We add our tears to the river.
translated by Sam Hamill
from an image in a poem of Liu Tsung-yuan: puny wings
these weary arms
are like puny wings
flapping ceaselessly
in a vain attempt
to reach heaven
Leonard Durso 