This wind will weave The cry of howling thievesAs calming rain Unfolds on golden grain A thousand sheaves A million fallen leavesAnd still these plains Will fill with bamboo canes Copyright (c) 2016 by Frank Watson. Loosely translated from Lu Shiheng’s “花落.”
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 MoreRed Dust
This cauldron carries the mistOf a hundred singing spirits Who wrap aroundEntwined in a halo BetweenThe heavens and the earthThe sun and the moon As we breathe the dustTo inhabit a worldOf darkness and light Clinging onFor ten thousand years Dissolved in a dropAnd an ocean that never ends Frank Watson Inspired …
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 MoreA Country Road
The moon has shadowed me, like stillborn air Along a country road, adrift in threads, Behind a worn out wheel, the pedals bare, As time leaves nothing here but cast off dead. I share these words with clouds in wind-washed treads, Where rock-strewn shores in …
Read MoreView from Central Park
as fog hangs over the tops of buildings touched by limbs of bare-branched trees in awe I feel the autumn morning this winter in Manhattan
Read MoreFarmer
A poor man on a tiny plot Imagines beyond the forest green; No words of the wise can mend his lot, He bears the burden as if a dream. He plants his field and tends for autumn, Singing a song of the land he sows, …
Read MoreWestern Clouds
The sun goes up and soars on to the end For me to chase somewhere beyond, alone; Today I’m here to rest and meet a friend, By dawn I’m off to seek a shore unknown. It’s been near fifteen years without a rest And now …
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 MoreFarewell to Cui
229. Farewell to Cui Pei Di Traversing mountains thin and deepAnd on through hills and dales revered;For just a day you’ll be a manOf Eden, land of love and cheer. Chinese Pronunciation 送崔九 Sòng cuī jiǔ 歸山深淺去， Guī shān shēn qiǎn qù， …
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