When night comes, I am so flushed with wine, I undo my hair slowly: a plum calyx is stuck on a damaged branch. I wake dazed when smoke breaks my spring sleep. The dream distant, so very distant; and it is quiet, so very quiet. The moon spins and spins. The kingfisher blinds are drawn; and yet I rub the injured bud, and yet I twist in my fingers this fragrance, and yet I possess these moments of time!
From The Silk Dragon: Translations from the Chinese, poems by Li Ch’ing-chao, translated by Arthur Sze, and published by Copper Canyon Press. Reprinted by permission of Copper Canyon Press (www.coppercanyonpress.org). Copyright © 2000. All rights reserved.