Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, OF DISTRESS BEING HUMILIATED BY THE CLASSICAL CHINESE POETS, by HAYDEN CARRUTH



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

OF DISTRESS BEING HUMILIATED BY THE CLASSICAL CHINESE POETS, by         Recitation by Author         Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Masters, the mock orange is blooming in syracuse without
Subject(s): Translating & Interpreting; Chinese Poets


Masters, the mock orange is blooming in Syracuse without scent, having been bred
by patient horticulturists
To make this greater display at the expense of fragrance.
But I miss the jasmine of my back-country home.
Your language has no tenses, which is why your poems can never be translated
whole into English;
Your minds are the minds of men who feel and imagine without time.
The serenity of the present, the repose of my eyes in the cool whiteness of
sterile flowers.
Even now the headsman with his great curved blade and rank odor is stalking the
byways for some of you.
When everything happens at once, no conflicts can occur.
Reality is an impasse. Tell me again
How the white heron rises from the reeds and flies forever across the nacreous
river at twilight
Toward the distant islands.


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org




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