(A.D. 822)
On the fifth day after the rise of Spring,
Everywhere the season's gracious attitudes!
The white sun gradually lengthening its course,
The blue-grey clouds hanging as though they would fall:
The last icicle breaking into splinters of jade:
The new stems marshalling red sprouts.
The things I meet are all full of gladness;
It is not only I who love the Spring.
To welcome the flowers I stand in the back garden;
To enjoy the sunlight I sit under the front eaves.
Yet still in my heart there lingers one regret;
Soon I shall part with the flame of my red stove!
By Po Chu-I, 772, Born on the 20th of first month to 846, Dies in the eighth month.
Another from "Chinese Poems" translated by Arthur Waley, a very old paperback that's lost it's spine, the pages wanting to scatter.
Talk about graceful! A beautiful looking-back, more nuanced than a mere ode.
ReplyDeleteHaunting...
ReplyDeleteAnd such a brilliant translation :)