Autumn Night, A Note

Autumn Night, A Note

 
Wei Yingwu (~737 – 792)
 
 
By chance I think of you this autumn night
Between my steps and song, and cooling skies:
Within your quiet hills a pine cone falls,
For you as well must not have closed your eyes.
 
 
Chinese
 
秋夜寄邱員外
韋應物
 
懷君屬秋夜
散步詠涼天
空山松子落
幽人應未眠
Pronunciation
 
Qiū Yè Jì Qiū Yuán Wài

Lullaby

our landscape trembles
in a storied web
worn cold with weather
whitewashed for another day
 
          *
 
the door opens and shuts
waiting for her
the immortal one and her music
played under a cloud
of the church organ
a hundred years old
 
          *
 
sun behind a cloud
piercing, transparent
folded in the leaves of grass
in a dream 
of another world

Island of Song

Afar I row a little boat,
An island of song and show;
Ashore I leave a nighttime note
Of footsteps laid below.
 
For now it drizzles mist ahead,
Mixed in with dark night green;
I walk a path where willows tread,
A painted river scene.
 
I open the door and see a room
Of skirts in red and plum;
With girls a-sway and arms abloom,
The beating of a drum.
 
I watch until my bottle goes,
The noise will leave us soon;
Outside a child unfolds a rose,
Her soul beneath moon.

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