On Reading THREE HUNDRED TANG POEMS - poem

  

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

On Reading Three Hundred Tang Poems

 

From The Jade Mountain they came

300 Tang dreams

Each in its well-ordered frame

Cups adrift in streams

 

The ancients speak to us still

Wisdom from the high

Each word a clear-flowing rill

Each a song, a sigh

 

 

Three Hundred Tang Poems

Translated and edited by Peter Harris

© 2009 by Peter Harris

Typeset in Somerset, England

Printed and bound on Possneck, Germany

Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets

New York: Knopf

Toronto: Penguin Random House

London: Everyman’s Library

On Reading a Poem by Du Mu - poem

 

Lawrence Hall, HSG

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

On Reading a Poem by Du Mu

 

Everything is far away

China is ever so far away

The dynasties are far away

A golden dragon might fly us there

 

The moon is across the river

The blue-black river in the mist

A fishing boat is tied to the gate

The water-gate of our inn

 

What do they mean, the moon and boat?

Maybe the moon and the boat mean nothing

They simply are; they are themselves

Or perhaps we mean the moon and boat

 

Because of Du Mu and his words

The moon and the boat are forever

The blue-black river is forever

In reading of them so are we

 

 

“A Night at the Inn While Travelling”

Three Hundred Tang Poems

Translated by Peter Harris

London: Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets, 2009