Snow fell early Along a desert road As autumn colors Collide within the flow The earth begins to crack Until, together again, it grows As chaos, disorder falls I slip into it all And hidden there I seek The gems of springtime’s show
Read MoreA Nighttime Gaze
A Nighttime Gaze Bai Juyi (772-846) The river wraps around the town’s cold edge,Its sandbanks still with sitting birds of dusk—Alone on top this building perched up high,I gaze southwest, where mountains drop to dust. Chinese 晚望白居易 江城寒角動沙洲夕鳥還獨在高亭上西南望遠山 Pronunciation Wǎn WàngBái Jūyì Jiāng chéng hán jiǎo dòngShā zhōu xī niǎo …
Read MoreA Man with Crumbs
A tree top twig Beneath the empty skyI look among The world’s connected stringsFrom a lofty view That’s twenty stories highIt’s here I see The flutters filled with wings This morning’s hush As Hudson’s sparkle comesAround it flows With autumn’s remnant leavesThe pigeon sky Above the …
Read MoreNew York Harbor
Leaf and flower Have fallen in the windA petal gone The ocean never endsThe sea mist comes An unexpected guestAs even now The gray moon lingers westWhat little air Has blown with pure scentMy father gone The door from which he wentAs dust is dry …
Read MorePlum Garden
For Boris and Miona They find a garden lush with plum-air scents As spring sun filters through the dew-dust leaves And subtle sighs arise while fruit ferments, For Eden enters Earth when minds conceive. Within the garden deep an oak tree grows, Preserving plum and …
Read MoreAnchored at Jiande River
Meng Haoran This anchored boat’s astir in fog and breeze,As sunset rends my fears up once again,But as the sky descends beneath the trees,The river, moon, and quiet become my friends. Chinese Pronunciation 宿建德江 Sù jiàn dé jiāng 移舟泊煙渚， Yí zhōu …
Read MoreLullaby
Meandering above the asphalt streets, The autumn moon lights vendor stalls; From dawn to dusk the city beats A song beyond Manhattan’s walls. Across this land the Rocky Mountains Conceal the trees and western sand, But here another day begins, Anxieties and troubles at hand. …
Read MoreGazing at the Snow Peak of Zhongnan
Above the mountain dark and deepThe snow clouds form a floating quill;But though these woods are clear and bright,Inside the town I feel it chill. Chinese Pronunciation 終南望餘雪 Zhōng Nán Wàng Yú Xuě 終南陰嶺秀， Zhōng nán yīn lǐng xiù ， 積雪浮雲端。 …
Read MoreCrow within the Yellow Leaves
Successive years of falling leaves, as gold- Enameled flowers flitter out, around The garden nook, with simple stories told To fragrant crowds at play on dampened ground. This time we sipped a cup of coffee cold And spoke of speckled, thinning hair once brown; A …
Read MoreEscape Fantasy
The smoky mist is wide and deep, The wind’s a child awake from sleep; A mother bear with baby cubs, I watch in love through tangled shrubs. Now wandering, I chase the clouds Up here, away from city crowds, But still I think of you …
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