Poetry

  • Nine Poems

    trans. Portuguese Lisa Sapinkopf 1. Luminous the abolished days When noon bent the columns' shadows And the blue of the sky was drinking up the earth Grown calm in the murmur Of the foliage and the gods. 2. L'Age D'Airain (Rodin) Slowly, slowly, before the light, Laden with shadows and weight, Pulling his body up…

  • Tune: Raise The Cup. No. 1

         Fragrant grass on the spring bank in Pa-ling,                  mist thick in the willows,            music fills the towers. The tune of a parting song: my heart is shattered to pieces.      Today I bid you farewell a myriad times.      Red flecked jade plates, gold flecked cups.                        I must urge you,      …

  • The Forgotten Commander

    trans. Swedish Robert Bly We have many shadows. I was walking home one September night when Y. rose from his grave after forty years and joined me on my walk. He seemed blown clean at first except for his name, but his thoughts swam faster than time could run, and they caught up. I fitted…

  • Tune: Raise The Cup. No. 2

         A white horse, a jade crop, and gilded reins:                  so easy for a young man            to say farewell. The road into the distance is a million miles long.      If you're saddened by clouds and water in a strange land, fill your cup with wine, I beg you with tears.                  …

  • Ode to an Old Wine

    trans. Danish Alexander Taylor and the author The wine that ripened up along the mountain slopes late that summer we met each other is already golden and full of the aftertaste of an abundance, evaporated like years in the sun and the night breeze looks into me with its poplar leaves:            I am tired…

  • Tune: Song Of An Immortal. No. 2

    Return deep in the night, drunk out of my mind, I'm helped stagger through the tasselled door-way, still      unsobered; pass out cold: wine stench blends with the scent of musk      and orchid.                  I wake up with a start:                  HA! HA! HA! I've always said,            ”How long can a man live?”

  • The Post Office

    How beautiful the letters are      we never get mailed compared to the letters we send and how astonishing the answers: The unexpected words that fall together      all by themselves forming perfect solutions to problems      we only then discover. For instance, I knew nothing about Venezuela before I began writing these lines and now I've already…

  • Tune: Song Of Waterclock At Night

               Bell and drum cold,            pavilion tower dark, moon shines on the golden well by the ancient pawlonias,            deep compound locked,            small courtyard empty,      fallen flowers pink in the fragrant dew.            Misty willows sombre,            spring haze light, lamp behind the crystal window in the tall pavilion;            quietly rests against…