Long Chords 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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"Salvage"


Salvage the fixating salvation 
unfurling from the wreckage
of a numb world twisted inside
treasure climbs swimming 
the ladder from the deep of all things 
reaching upwards travelling in a new time
of melting morpheme moments overlapping 
dissolved...

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There was a glimpse of time unknown to man
The things none may ever describe
All wrapped within this wall of thoughts
For if a moment of my thoughts are clear
They are not my thoughts at all
Never again...

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The Story so far…
Makani (The Rising Wind), a beautiful extra-terrestrial researcher is sent to a remote island to observe earth. She finds Sam, a shipwrecked earthling near death owing to drowning. Sam (Ka ‘Lo -...

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justice 

What does this vastly misunderstood word mean to you? 

Too what ends? 

May we seek? 

Who(m) may guide us? 

Endless deliberation (spiss spiss spiss)

Debated and glorified by us all 

Beloved; instilled among (a) core...

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A born lioness my untamed heart? ha! 
a mouse, this pulsing token ruled by unruly wants
at times given, traded or stolen - sometimes
thrown down on a dare to be won or lost 
till it became...

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The great Sabbath day descended, though not in my heart and mind
On this new day,
I imagined rays of God’s light shining generously upon the mountains,
Pools of living waters gurgling, and winds gently rustling trees
Wishing for...

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I saw how martyrs longed for love, and so began the play of my flitting heart
A strange girl had I become, with airs of fickle dream,
My heart an embodiment of wonder to all that dared...

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In the intimate interlace of chance and fate, in the ultimate interplay of time and place, and with the consummate checkmate of my human dignity, all that is -- is over, in the stormy, swarming...

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"Heart"  

Deep fissures formed
in the cracks of 
the nowhere place
where time leeched
bleeding claret 
through the green 
veined blues

protean bit by bit
the flesh disappears
prematurely 6ft under
mulch for rebirth
the subcontinent
conscientious conscience 
inward reaching

the divine central tableau...

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In Regenerative Design,
dialectical cooperative contrasts
need not also mean
suspiciously diabolical 
competitive win/lose opposition
to our own internal RightWing
self-righteously
kinda venomously professional
commodified LeftBrain dominant encultured
prejudiced inside privileged
ego-supremacist voices.

In Regenerative Communication,
sometimes questions
are expressed as peace-intended
hypothetical Truth Statements,
awaiting sacred polycultural transubstantiation
through...

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Stars fall under failing skies...stars fall...stars fall...
But stars do not cry.
Into Ochs valley, through the Vale of White Horse...prancing 
besides a Dragons Hill;
It was here that a Roundhead - did a Royalist Cavaliers blood in...

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Words of a mother melting your spirit despite it being cold. Her loving you no matter what chasing that heart of gold. 
         "You don't need to...

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The three enigmas of Turandot

The well of souls run deep in fabled lands of old.
Of China's ancient dynasty and the lost Great Tartary, 
a ballad of love and loss that must be told.

The Emperor's daughter,...

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Every child is born into this world crying,
Little did this poor child know, tears would fall for the rest of her life.
Born into a world of abuse, heartache and pain,
With a drug addict, alcoholic abusive...

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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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And the music began,
And with power so strong, I nearly fell back from the force
Snarling, smiling, demons held me upright,
As the Precarious Prince began,

“Dare you in silence come to me, Daughter of Eve,
To challenge my...

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It was midnight and my dream was shattered
I fell into darkness
A nightmare
I was sinking, drowning, dying…
But then I heard the laugh of a child
Carefree and joyful was the music of her lips
She smiled and suddenly...

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Oh God Most High, oh yes…
I’ve done it again…
I admit…now, I’m in distress
Oh Lord, why did I sin that same sin over and over again?
Why did You allow this to happen to me? Where have...

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(A Rave By A Poet)      

Remember when you were a child? 
Adults seemed then to be in control, 
Almost like Gods, with special powers
That almost always knew
When you'd been up...

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Poetical Journey Of Pizzaz

Apple Blossom Orchids are spreading across my grandmother's land like a whiZ
Zestfully all around one's earnest expectations like the smallest of fleA
Bites a person's imagination like they're singing a song and plaY
Years...

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In his seething silence, I spoke, softly to him,
“Did I desire once to be higher than you, oh seething heart?
Could I, in my human flesh, sympathize for your imminent demise?
Cradling you in my sorrows, as...

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I. Early Childhood’s Gifts

Gift 1:
Is love felt from our parents, our friends a true gift
or more something we earn bit by bit over time,
(a child adds to, subtracts from, as days turn to years)?
This is...

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What to do,
how respond,
to totalitarian tyranny
in someone else's home
or community
or economy?

OK, good question,
I hope,
yet with ample precedent
in polycultural battles to attain harmonious balance
where we have become monopolistically lost.

What do you do,
how respond,
to monocultural stimuli
advancing in...

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One afternoon Martha the mother of Jack, who was in her early eighties, told an amazing story about her son while having coffee in the parlor with her neighbors; it was a weekly gathering to...

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