Another goodie Gary.



bw
James




>From: Gary Blankenship <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: (Number fifteen in a series of transformations of Wang Wei's River 
>Wang poems.) Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 11:07:06 -0700
>
>(Number fifteen in a series of transformations of Wang Wei's River Wang
>poems.)
>
>A River Transformed XV:  After Wang Wei's White Rock Shoals (15)
>
>If Not One Lake, Another
>
>Loons call across water lilies and eel grass.
>Spooked by clothing tossed on autumn's breeze,
>doe and fawn leap along the lakeshore.
>Upstream, village dogs chase each passing car.
>
>A truck door slams to drunken laughter.
>Startled, we splash to shore and quick cover.
>Redwings and bluebirds gather threads
>to repair long abandoned nests.
>
>On green rocks, once smooth and soap slick,
>we listen to gossip carried across the water.
>A muskrat dives beneath bleached sticks;
>the wind rises to meet your shirt's wet touch.
>
>A fawn nibbles on a forgotten tube sock
>under a cracked harvest moon.
>
>
>I do not have a literal translation of this poem.  Instead I offer
>Willis and Tony Barnstone's:
>
>White Pebble Shoal is clear and shallow.
>You can almost grab the green cattail.
>Houses east and west of the stream.
>Someone washes silk in bright moonlight.
>
>  Note:  Other translations title the poem "White Rock Rapids" and are
>specific about who washes.
>
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