December 2023
Tom Montag
theoldmonk85@gmail.com
theoldmonk85@gmail.com
Author's Note: It is not so much that I have been "translating" the poetry of the Chinese masters as I have been re-imagining it. I don't speak or read Chinese, but I do read English translations of Chinese poems and can often see poems still locked inside those translations trying to get out. What I have been doing is finding those poems and setting them free in a way that works as poetry for me. Here are two more of them.
After Yan Shu's "Last Year"
On this old porch the same cup of wine. The same melody with new words. The same weather we had last year. The same sun setting. It also rises. When will I see you? The flowers keep fading. The same swallows keep returning. On the same path through my garden I linger with the same loneliness.
After Li Yu's "Sound of Autumn"
Last night wind and rain. The sound of autumn in the curtains. The candles sputtering. The clock tick-tick-ticking. I hugged my sleepless pillow. I got up, sat down, restless. Worries are like a river. Life is a dream about falling. Drunkenness is a heaven where the road stays steady. I should visit there more often. In this world I can barely walk at all.
©2023 Tom Montag
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to say what it is about the poem you like. Writing to the author is what builds the community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -JL