August 2020
Tom Montag
tmmontag@centurylink.net
tmmontag@centurylink.net
Author's Note: I don't read Chinese, but I have read many of the available translations
of these poems, and have tried to free the poems I saw still struggling to get out. I think these are
the poems those Chinese masters were trying to give us. In the case of these specific "poems,"
I am bringing across only partial versions of the originals.
After Some Lines
From Qin Guan's
"No Need To Ask"
Let's drink
some new wine,
the beads of it
like dark pearls.
Don't be shy,
fill up the cups.
Who knows when
we'll meet again.
When we part
we'll be as
blossoms drifting
on water.
After Some Lines
From Huang Tingjian's
"Peach Blossom"
I sit on a rock
and play my guitar.
Where is Li Po?
I have no one
to drink with.
I have no medicine
for my flushed face.
Now, my breathing
labored, I'm dancing
drunken down the
mountain, the moon
chasing me home.
After Some Lines
From Li Qing Zhao's
"Sad Feelings"
All the fallen
flowers. Who will
pick them up?
I am standing
at the window.
Loneliness
stands with me
waiting for
the darkness,
watching the rain.
"Sadness" is
not big enough
a word to say
what I mean.
©2020 Tom Montag
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the
author (email address above) to tell her or him. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is what builds the community at Verse Virtual.
It is very important. -JL