Du Fu: A Life in Poetry, translated by David Young

Too hot in the sun too cool in the shade

I keep going from one side of the house to the other

breezes ripple through the young grass

hawks slide sideways along the ridge

the late afternoon sun sets the flowering crabapple aglow

long shadows fill with lilac scent

immersed in a life’s worth of poetry

I’ve let another spring day come & go

wind stripped the last petals from my cherry tree

while twelve centuries seemed almost to vanish.

Some things have changed since Du Fu’s day, I think

it’s more common for men to write love poems to their wives now

or to write in the voices of conscripts or laundry women

the Three Gorges would be unrecognizable to him, I’m afraid

mountains & rivers go to ruin these days while the state survives

I watch the crescent moon sink toward the horizon

Chang’an remains attainable only in dreams.