from Spring Songs (12)
12.
Midnight. In a corner of a room
a few days away, a half century crouches.
In the dark the corners of the years round up
certainty into the smooth black mast
against which direction flaps without words,
a trunk removed from its roots.
In the morning it is the maple and its shadow
unwinding along riverways of air and light.
The maple is old but the leaves always young,
the hours of the year, the half million
minutes through which we extend and end,
define the canopy of entirety itself by the shape
of what we miss. We shed time but are shaped by it;
wine on a quiet night, before crickets.
Translations from the English 
Not half bad for an OLD poet…57 years old if my math is correct! You’ll be writing more and more of these “encroaching age” poems if my own experience is any guide. BUT you’ll do it with such grace and aplomb! 🙂
Ron
Thanks Ron! The half million minutes are those in a year; the half century is that thing in the corner that doesn’t have to approach me because i’m drawing near to it every day…lucky enough to have a birthday that always falls around Memorial Day weekend, at any rate.
“wine on a quiet night, before crickets” God, I love that line. The whole poem, actually, but, as I’ve said before, you certainly know how to close a poem.
Thanks Len!
Reblogged this on Life is But This and commented:
午夜。房間的一個角落
幾天的距離外
伏著半個世紀
黑暗中歲月的邊緣
把定局環繞著
那圓滑的黑桿
它被指揮無言的拍打
像一支去了根的樹幹
早上槭樹和它的影子
蜿蜒明亮氣爽的河道
我們度過的歲月時光
那延過半百萬分鐘的結果
定了整個我們所錯過了的形象
擺脫了時代但仍被它塑做
蟋蟀臨前，靜夜舉杯
(c) Mary Tang 2015
Audio attached to reblog.
That is great, Mary. This has been an exciting collaboration.
Thanks, Jeff. I had no idea that I could translate English poems to Chinese until I took up your challenge. I am grateful to you for that.
Another stunner, friend Jeff. Much to savor here…
Thanks Emily. That is the last of the sequence, so I’m glad it could end on the right note.
I see that time-beast in the corner as well, but I pretend it’s just accumulating cat fur… 🙂 I love those “riverways of air and light”, which are as timeless as cricket song. All the best to you as you celebrate your natal day!
Thanks SJ! And btw am totally in tune with your “Lilac Time” post…
You must be! So pleased that we share that.
Solace in those last lines…
Yes, so much to think over from here. Nice work.
this is literature.
Thanks, Elle! Glad you came by and hope you make yourself at home.
definitely! loving your words ♡