Long Cambridge Poems

Chinese Poets: English Translations II

These are modern English translations of poems by the Chinese poets Tzu Yeh, Lin Huiyin, Xu Zhimo and Huang E. These are poems about love, passion and beauty. 


Tzu Yeh (circa...

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 TUAN TATA : Song of Uda - I
by T. Wignesan

(Patrick Noone, a British anthropologist, discovered the Ple-Temiar tribe living isolated in the jungle highlands in the State of Perak on the west coast of...

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Her small angelic face ...

Once a place where broad smiles bloomed like butterflies on marigolds,
is streaked with the furrows that countless tears have etched into the
layers of dust and dirt and explosive residue that now...

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Translation of Eric Mottram’s TIME SIGHT UNSEEN, Part One by T. Wignesan

"Instead of an item in a school of rhetoric, the poem could have variety of articulations, continuity and discontinuity, sentence and parataxis, and an...

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Translation of Eric Mottram’s TIME SIGHT UNSEEN, Part Two by T. Wignesan

"Instead of an item in a school of rhetoric, the poem could have variety of articulations, continuity and discontinuity, sentence and parataxis, and an...

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Increase In Head Size

impossible mission to encapsulate notion 
flitting hither and yon, to and fro
within cranium attached to mine body,
whereby irrefutable proof prevails
predicated when yours truly
scrutinizes other people visibly aware,
I a modest married male 
blessed,...

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 Translation of Eric Mottram’s TIME SIGHT UNSEEN - Part Four by T. Wignesan


"Instead of an item in a school of rhetoric, the poem could have variety of articulations, continuity and discontinuity, sentence and parataxis,...

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“Before The Firing Squad”



the firing squad 
came dressed
in faux smiles

the intervention cake 
was spoon fed, like honey,
by mother superior

to the lesser bee,
with self-righteous
magnanimity

she wore the badge
Devil’s Advocate, proudly,
without any clear authority

casting bloodied 
nasturtiums around the...

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'We have a future king to make,'
Said the deep, resounding voice.
'But it is not a proper fit for everyone.
For a king must know first how to obey than to command,
And to abide rather than reign.'

'And...

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From blank screen to logorrhea, I write with confused adumbrations

Methinks hmm, perhaps
I admittedly self plagiarize and quite aware
aforementioned amalgamated, conglomerated, 
fabricated, jerry rigged, and organized 
eye gripping titled
poem already aired a year plus ago,
though revisiting...

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Tell her you saw me ...

Tell her I was out on the bluff at the Cape
during a gale, much too close to the rocks.
Tell her the surf was tormenting the ledges,
its roar far too loud...

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Okay. So, according to her license plate, Sarah had something to do with the name “Welbeck Street” and had once asked if the Journal would consider using “Harvard Yard” in her name. Also according to...

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for Eric Mottram (1924 - 1995)*

 a life of toil for the man in the centre
 a hub in the peripheral tireless wheel
 
   where he go then where he go this working...

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From Blank Screen To Logorrhea, I Write With Confused Adumbrations

Methinks hmm, perhaps
aforementioned conglomerated eye gripping titled,
poem already aired
though revisiting said theme
downplayed as thoughts blare
though similar content
invariably communicated,
sans trademark Pi Seine fishtail career
as applies to other...

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Translation of Eric Mottram’s TIME SIGHT UNSEEN, Part Three by T. Wignesan

"Instead of an item in a school of rhetoric, the poem could have variety of articulations, continuity and discontinuity, sentence and parataxis, and an...

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It was somewhere in Cambridge, when the amalgam of substances 
began to cloud our judgment. 
The changes were between vague and blatantly obvious, but 
we were masters at this terrifying craft. 
A small dose of...

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His ramrod back, his brill-creamed hair 
and waxed moustache gave him a certain air, 
a certain dash, and a military bearing. 
His speech was clipped. He walked his stick 
with sergeant major's flick.
His corduroys ...

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"Impenetrable" 



The shell cracks 
the impenetrable opens 

The conduit 
responds 

the lighter being 
rises

in the blood 
walking a strange ocean

sound 
waves 

magnetised, 
message ignited

turned on,
taken 

the electric body 
like music hums

Solfeggio
a new vibration

that which was...

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"All the Pretty Words"



All the pretty words
blooming like summer jonquils
fade from the velvet fresh green tongues
and rich fecund tussled beds 
of poets and minstrels
strumming hearts with 
fingers that waltz over keys
plucking tangos from dreams of
sensitive...

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The brightest star so renowned,
Modern Cosmology well-governed!
The Universe was examined and Black Holes too
Brought General Relativity and Quantum Gravity intact!
Was he the one who diagnosed with dreadful ALS,
Transformed black holes from inexorable gravitational prisons?
“Lived decades...

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noah wide dee ya when,
where, why or how then
thine ark of in sight fullness, pen
(viz uber taurus), men
sans quirky physiological ken
focus a ford did afore hen
chosen poetic themed word den.

this tire less un escort head
eureka...

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You are the light bearer
And I am the light seeker
Your radiant thoughts flourish and fall
As shower of blessings on us all
Tides of love created by you
Immerse all – make our lives anew
Man is mortal, but...

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This is a poem about the University city of Cambridge in the UK , although I have only been there a few times , I decided to write a poem about it. Lord Bryon one...

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Humdumpty was an analyst, a Cambridge Ph.D.,
A noted bio-atomist, whatever that might  be. 
Indeed, from earliest childhood it was his single aim 
To analyze no matter what might enter his domain. 
He analyzed his...

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...Then working with the government,
who always liked more western cash,
they set up an agreement that
they hoped could contain this backlash.

Two scientists could see the arc,
and work to verify its age,
one from Harvard, and one Cambridge,
and...

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