on land on sea
wherever I wander
these ghosts
who accompany me
smile benignly
at these
my remaining years
life goes on
not finished
there
once more
not finished
yet
On the Wall-Tower above K’uei-chou at Night, Thinking of Tu Fu by Lu Yu
Done advising emperors, hair white–no one cared about
old Tu Fu, his life scattered away across rivers of the west,
chanting poems. He stood on this tower once, and now he’s
gone. Waves churn the same isolate moon. Inexhaustible
through all antiquity, this world’s great dramas just rise
and sink away. Simpleton and sage alike return in due time.
All these ice-cold thoughts, who’ll I share them with now?
In depths of night, gulls and egrets lift off sand into flight.
translated by David Hinton
Day after Day by Li Shang-yin
Day after day spring’s glory vies with the glorious sun.
Sloping roads to the hill city smell of flowering almond.
How long before the heart’s threads, all cares gone,
Float free for a hundred feet with the gossamer?
translated by A.C. Graham
on change: a tanka
days will pass away
change will come with the seasons
time does not stand still
life takes on its own rhythm
and peace will finally reign
from Miscellaneous Poems, Poem 3 by T’ao Ch’ien
Bright blossoms seldom last long;
Life’s ups-and-downs can’t be charted.
What was a lotus flower in spring,
Is now the seed-husk of autumn.
Severe frost freezes the wild grass:
Decay has yet to finish it off.
Sun and moon come back once more,
But where I go, no sun will shine.
I look back longingly on times gone by–
Remembering the past wounds my soul.
translated by Eugene Eoyang
