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Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 3571 Registered: 11-1998 |
Honorable Mention Outside Magnolia Park Gary Blankenship (The fourth in a series of transformations of Wang Wei’s River Wang poems.) A River Transformed IV: After Wang Wei’s Hsin-i Village Outside Magnolia Park Mountains and mounds of shaded thicket, scarlet and indigo foliage left untended behind concertina wire and “no trespassing” signs, unwanted and unneeded, cut from the city’s conscience. I cup my hands to drink from a broken fountain; you collect pigeon feathers and seeds to be tossed when you decide to travel along the river, unencumbered. Calyx – If the blind cannot follow his steps, nor deaf hear his silence, if the scholar guided through centuries fails, how can I assume I’ll succeed? Hibiscus petals, paper, silk, plastic, pressed in the pages of a water-stained book. * The literal translation by Wai-Lim Yip: Hsin-i Village tree tip hibiscus* -- flower mountain middle set-forth red calyx stream hut/home still/silent no man profuse- profuse open and fall *also translated as magnolia and water lily |
