DAILY PHOTO: Rainy Day Busan

“To a Butterfly” by William Wordsworth [w/ Audio]

Stay near me—do not take thy flight!
A little longer stay in sight!
Much converse do I find in Thee,
Historian of my Infancy!
Float near me; do not yet depart!
Dead times revive in thee:
Thou bring'st, gay Creature as thou art!
A solemn image to my heart,
My Father's Family!

Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days,
The time, when in our childish plays
My sister Emmeline and I
Together chased the Butterfly!
A very hunter did I rush
Upon the prey:—with leaps and springs
I follow'd on from brake to bush;
But She, God love her! feared to brush
The dust from off its wings.

Rainy Day Graveyard [Free Verse]

Rainy day
Graveyard:

Green grass
Glistens
Between row on row
Of low gravestones.

Droplets dash
Against the marble
And against
The brass plaques --
Silently.
Though a steady patter
Of drips on leaves
Sings through.

A poncho-clad figure
Walks through the
Sprawling war memorial ---
Alone.

Pagoda Pond [Haiku]

clouds drift 
amid the lily pads:
pagoda pond.

“To the River” by Edgar Allan Poe [w/ Audio]

Fair river! in thy bright, clear flow
Of crystal, wandering water,
Thou art an emblem of the glow
Of beauty—the unhidden heart—
The playful maziness of art
In old Alberto’s daughter;

But when within thy wave she looks—
Which glistens then, and trembles—
Why, then, the prettiest of brooks
Her worshipper resembles;
For in my heart, as in thy stream,
Her image deeply lies—
His heart which trembles at the beam
Of her soul-searching eyes.

Bed of Boulders [Haiku]

mid-summer:
a stream trickles through boulders
once dragged by floods.

“Autumn Moon” [秋月] by Cheng Hao [程颢] [w/ Audio]

A clear stream passes by the
mountain clad in green;
The clear sky and clear water
melt in autumn hue.
Far far away from the tumultuous
world unclean,
Long long will white clouds and
red leaves be friend to you.

Note: This is the joint translation of Xu Yuanchong and Xu Ming found in the edition of Golden Treasury of Quatrains and Octaves on which they collaborated (i.e. China Publishing Group: Beijing (2008) p. 64.)

Dancing Daisies [Haiku]

bright flowers 
dance in a breeze,
beside the castle wall.

Patter [Haiku]

sparse patter
on leaves outside the window:
half-hour after rain.

DAILY PHOTO: Wolji Pond Pavilions by Day & by Night