Letters to Du Fu
I paid a visit to the province of a past year aided by a pot of wine
self-contempt erects a wide frame almost anyone can pass through
So unruly are my needs who would own up to it
Only a fool would try to imitate the arrow before letting go the bow
•
Du Fu, do not attempt this journeying with a whip of effort
to speed up your travel step backward into the broad forgetting
They say too much brooding elongates the mind
Everywhere one lands the train arrives at the depot early or late
•
Fruitless to try and compare your searching lines
with the rain’s heavy lather I’ll take instead the shaved surface of the moon
We are wiped of age first thing in the morning sleep is a light wash
and don’t we know it we are wrung and wrung