Two Ci Poems

IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY WIFE


Life, death--a blurry line, these ten years past.
I dare not remember,
but I cannot forget
her lonely grave, leagues away.
Nowhere here to confide my sadness.
Even though we met, she would not know me
with my face of dust,
my temples of frost.
Dreaming last night, I returned to our town:
A window, a small room.
She was combing her hair.
Each of us staring, wordless,
recalling then our place of lasting sorrow,
always in moonlight,
the hill of scrub pines.
     --Su Shi




FEELINGS AT NIGHT


Long willow threads in light spring rain.
Water clock sounds beyond the flowers.
Border geese startle, crows fly away.
Golden partridge, a painted screen.
A thin, fragrant mist
seeps through the curtain.
Gloom over house, pond, and pavilion.
Candles gutter out, brocades hang low.
All a dream beyond your ken.
     --Wen Tingyun