Sitting alone -- secluded bamboo grove:
I whistle or pluck my zither;
People don't know my deep forest;
Moon and I shine on each other.
Original in Simplified Chinese:
独坐幽篁里
弹琴复长啸
深林人不知
明月来相照
The days of riches are now behind.
I think I thought I lost my mind --
It fell into a deep, dark hole
When my severed head took a roll
Up to the lip, over the edge,
Falling -- I took a solemn pledge:
That my skull drop so straight and true
To hit bottom and rip straight through
To the other side.
When am I coming home? I don't know.
At Bashan, night rains swell Autumn ponds.
Recall, candles in your West Window?
Ah, through night rains, to talk and bond!
The original in Simplified Chinese:
君问归期未有期， 巴山夜雨涨秋池。
何当共剪西窗烛， 却话巴山夜雨时？
Note: This is poem #298 of the 300 Tang Poems [唐诗三百首.]
On a pleasant mid-Spring day,
A bird landed -- no bounce or sway.
It perched, chirping - as if in play:
I blinked, and it'd flown away.
ring of blossoms
around the tree trunk:
still, as shadows creep.
I like to see it lap the Miles --
And lick the Valleys up --
And stop to feed itself at Tanks --
And then - prodigious step
Around a Pile of Mountains --
And supercilious peer
In Shanties -- by the sides of Roads --
And then a Quarry pare
To fit its sides
And crawl between
Complaining all the while
In horrid -- hooting stanza --
Then chase itself down Hill --
And neigh like Boanerges --
Then - prompter than a Star
Stop - docile and omnipotent
At it's own stable door --
heron & reflection drift apart
until one of them vanishes.
Once there came a man
Who said:
"Range me all men of the world in rows."
And instantly
There was a terrific clamor among the
people
Against being ranged in rows.
There was a loud quarrel, world-wide.
It endured for ages;
And blood was shed
By those who would not stand in rows,
And by those who pined to stand in rows.
Eventually, the man went to death, weeping.
And those who stayed in the bloody scuffle
Knew not the great simplicity.
Whether on Ida's shady brow,
Or in the chambers of the East,
The chambers of the sun, that now
From antient melody have ceas'd;
Whether in Heav'n ye wander fair,
Or the green corners of the earth,
Or the blue regions of the air,
Where the melodious winds have birth;
Whether on chrystal rocks ye rove,
Beneath the bosom of the sea
Wand'ring in many a coral grove,
Fair Nine, forsaking Poetry!
How have you left the antient love
That bards of old enjoy'd in you!
The languid strings do scarely move!
The sound is forc'd, the notes are few!
