People Petals

This is my translation of a Chinese Song dynasty poem and my response to the poem

Yan Jidao
To the tune of Mulan hua

Again, the east wind blows its heartless gusts
Smears flowers thick upon the ground like scarlet makeup blush
Emerald tower’s curtain no screen for sorrow’s view
Last year’s melancholy washes in anew
Am I not a fool to fret so over spring’s remains?
At every step shed my tears in vain
Instead, I’ll fill my wine cup to the brim
This full of fallen flowers I need to drink my sorrow dim

People Petals 
Fallen flowers do not linger in these days
When spring is greenhouse years and air-conditioned rooms
And workers plant the flowers for a time, then take their withered heads away
But no, it’s not in vain to fret and cry for all that falls and fades
The careless wind and strewn ground
A season mirror sending us our hearts
The flowers as if people petals that blossomed in our past
Faces gone, friends and neighbours, Christmas present aunts
Run to gather up those bits of life and stay their shades
Press them in my memory books and glue them fast
People petals still spread blush and dab the earth’s cheeks bright
The roads inside us still need tears to wash away the dust
Be summer rains and clear the skies for autumn gold
Even with the east wind shut outside and seasons small
We still know time and still grow old and feel how sorrow turns
Still the sowers, gardeners, sweepers
Still the faded fruits, the ashes and the earth

Copyright © Ijen Warner | Year Posted 2016

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