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Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 3545 Registered: 11-1998 |
Honorable Mention An Unintended Interlude Gary Blankenship This was the most difficult to date. It took three versions before I found this one. (The ninth in a series of transformations of Wang Wei’s River Wang poems.) A River Transformed IX: After Wang Wei’s The Cornel Grove (7) An Unintended Interlude A sign flashes green – red; red – green: O_en _losed O_en _losed O_en, the café parking lot promises weeds and gossip from a month old newspaper, our destination beyond thistle fields and crabapple hedges. Leaden clay spatters the windshield, wind pushes us towards an edge. Our journey less than half over, you will pour me the first cup and argue that we can not outrun the storm. I will shrug despite one shoulder’s pain. Tipsy birds pass fruit from beak to beak, each bead a suggestion of promises to come. The literal translation from a web site. Bear fruit red and green Again as if flower further open Hill at if remain guest Place here cornel cup http://www.chinese-poems.com/ww6.html The fruit has been translated as dogwood berries. A cornel cup would be a cup made of dogwood. The poem has been titled Rivers of Dogwood, but is seldom translated. |
