SHI JING VALLEY

I hear a woman weep

like wind thinning leaves in a bamboo grove,

a sound to be remembered

Tears may freeze in winter

when she cries for war’s despair,

or in spring, as black-naped orioles

sing golden on the plains

and she laments lost seasons

That woman in sunshine

like kudzu along a riverbank

breathes with the light

On the mountain, care’s green vine

descends from a cliff edge

By the jetty

sorrow bends like a reed in the river

A day without seeing you is three months

A day three autumns

A day three years

You ask where I’m going

as wind flows this way or that

through the gates of the city

Someone gathers yellow waterlilies, fern-shoots

in places to love and be loved

Short grasses stroke the soil’s soft skin

I meet my lover

then we part

You ask when I may return

When troops no longer take weapons

and silk’s not torn to threads

Some plant mulberry, raise silkworms

Some wash clothes

Starlight ebbs at dawn’s music

Lover, lie with me at dusk

and for me yearn at daybreak