Gifting The Palace To Eunuch Qingnu Poem by Warren Falcon

[NOTE: - These are loose improvs on several poems By Li Yu (937-978 Tang Dynasty, China)based Upon Translations By Luo Zhihai (1954-, China) .Luo Zhihai's work is on the poemhunter site]

for Tien Yi Ho from whom I sorrowfully learned of "the passion of the cut sleeve1"


Spring snow just stopped and felt a little cold
Without any traces the youth years go

Is the beautiful image of yesterday a dream?
Lovesickness of no avail so ask the east wind- Translation by Luo Zhihai (China)



A shrine with legs

These tired eyes

Pagoda hands

extend into all

manner of sky


Letting go of things

still I swoon -


Without effort

Nature's beauty


Emerald fires


Always lowering clouds



*



Qingnu -


from you

gentleness


constancy


light inside

things


Difficulties

too


old

leather

relents


cracks




Such and

more

stretch

patience


As you say -


constant mercy

is no respecter

of persons


No one and not

one thing is exempted



*



The crocus does
not compare itself
to cow or crow

still I have always
been dull

so very slowly
I have wised up



Today one sure thing I know

as I go steady in my step
with the aid of my staff
into shy spring snow -

all things being equal in Tao

one step asks who is high

the other who is low?



*



As our frozen river begins
to break and without effort

flows without thought

it does not need to know
so I follow in the water's
way without maps or manners
for there is no right or
wrong way say the wise
Tzus, Chuang and Lao2

I confess to one thought
only while I wander -


of you dear friend.


When I am lonely

I will sing of you to twisted pines

To distant peaks
I will tell of you

your life as a boy servile
to my father, of his abuse


yet still you could play

light incense with other
boys at the shrine and

pray gifting me a semi-precious
stone found in the temple yard
where you'd play

a token of good will and respect
toward Divinity in all things



*



Memory of your evening songs will
sing on as they have since childhood

instructing tunes about common good
bestowed upon all folk

and bar songs about entitled
not-to-be-named genteel asses
braying their threats and lies -

"...they will wind up in Braggarts' Hell for sure..."


But a boy yourself you once snuck me out
the palace while my drunken father snored

With the tipsy workers you hoarsely bellowed
out of tune pretending to be drunk too as
you winked at me wide-eyed and laughing

Sneaking back into the palace you said that
soon enough I would see and know what
pathetic jokes such men are especially those
who are noble in title alone

I whispered that you were brave to say it

Only Truth is brave
you said with a grin
you pull the blanket
over our heads and
we slept chin to chin



*



Qingnu

a last gesture
of my affection

caring for your
aching bones

I stoke the fire
in the hearth
for you



Both wood and
dung are stacked
that your back
may not have to
stoop and haul
from the long yard

My time here in the palace is spent

May others for you spark the flint

All is yours yours now

My heart always



*



Listen


The peacock's
call from the bare willow


I quietly trudge on
my heart both broken and full

An emperor's bird signals diamond
glory to the suggested world
its breath visible to no one but me


My old eyes strain hard to see the Way of Ways


It sounds but does not say




1 "the passion of the cut sleeve" - In China, a euphemism for same-sex love:
"In order to rise without waking Dong, the Emperor Ai cut off his sleeve and slipped away, leaving his beloved to sleep undisturbed. This tale gave rise to the phrase "the passion of the cut sleeve, " a Chinese euphemism for same-sex love." - you may Google "the cut sleeve" and find many links are available for information regarding the tales of emperor Ai and his lover Dong Xian

2 Chuang Tzu and Lao Tzu.Both are major Chinese philosophers of the Tao, or The Way, each a major influence in the development of Taois