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| from the public domain |
A diffusion of rain.
I walk the woods without shadows.
The war goes on.
I live among deer.
I wondered if sparrows no longer twittered.
Then I realized I was going deaf.
I wrote a poem of three lines.
That was all I had to say.
I must finish the chicken coop.
They're knocking plates off the table.
The body grows weaker.
But gazing at the mountains stays the same.
Thirty years since I've seen you.
And I still see your tail lights going over the hill.
The mind moves as slowly as a cloud.
But a cloud moves on.
—adapted from The Life of Tu Fu (712-770,AD), gleaned from his poems and translated by Eliot Weinberger, New Directions, 2024.
