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Drunken Villagers
Anonymous
the guest is drunk
and the host, and the boy
and they sing, and they dance, and they laugh
who cares if you’re thirty or fifty or eighty
you bow politely, and he bows, and l
no boisterous strings or mad flutes here to rush us
we drink with the rolling red sun
till he falls in the West
and pound time on our plates and our saucers and bowls
till they break.
J.P. Seaton
Gazing Afar at Wuzhen Temple
Zhang Ji
Towering above, and facing
the gateway of my inn,
The Peak for Gathering Jade links up
with hidden Buddhist shrine.
To no purpose, coming, going,
riding official horses!
Not allowed a single inch
of travel that is mine.
Jonathan Chaves
Written When Drunk
Chang Yueh
Once drunk, my delight knows no limits,
so much better than before I’m drunk.
My movements are all shaped like dances,
and everything I say comes out a poem!
Burton Watson
After Finishing a Poem
Chia Tao
Those two lines cost me three years:
I chant them once, and get two more, of tears.
Friend, if you don’t like them…
I’ll go home, and lie down,
in the ancient mountain autumn.
J.P. Seaton
Quatrain
Choa tao
At the bottom of the ocean: the moon,
bright moon, round as the wheel of the sky.
Just get a single hand full of this glory…
and you could buy a thousand miles of Spring.
J.P. Seaton
Inscribed on the Wall of the Hut by the Lake
Chiao Jan
If you want to be a mountain dweller…
no need to trek to India to find a mountain…
I’ve got a thousand peaks
to pick from, right here in this lake.
Fragrant grasses, white clouds,
to hold me here.
What holds you there,
world-dweller?
J.P. Seaton
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