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.
