Long Expanses 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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Time for a road trip, my  dad, mom and us three kids all packed into our old station wagon. I guess it wasn't so old but it sure seemed that way at the time....

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Is there room to care for the penultimate?
Can't decide if the space can satisfy two collard greens.  
One oblivious cabbage... one who has desperately tried to expand the space, to save the others, who...

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I want more solstice evening silhouettes.
And nights of rhapsody filled with rental stars.
To explore blurred mornings when the sun rises.
With transitions dripping through the trees.

I want to know how the seasons change.
Who makes time a...

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Night one on the new river, the campfire is spirited
and the future appears hospitable,
everyone has their rations, everybody is resting their pride
for on an expedition epic to each man and for a republic as well
souls...

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Life is precious , therefore he cultivates it
     it's vastness among all his compositions
   they flow like an aria from many instruments
       ...

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In the silent depths of my mind, I ponder what defines a fulfilled life,
Is it a path paved with discipline or perhaps a labyrinth of unbound pleasure?
Maybe the truth hides in the time spent with...

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These are English translations of Urdu poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, whose name is also frequently spelled Faiz Ahmad Faiz. 

Last Night
by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
translation by Michael R. Burch

Last night, your memory stole into my...

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Drink the Namibia Countryside 

Namibia a West African country, on the Atlantic coast
Namibia’s beauty is wonderfully surreal and alluring,
With endless savannah and bushland 
With most stunning landscapes in Africa, 
with acres of ocean shores, woodland...

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Sinister glacial dissolution 
verging on huge jagged icebergs reverberate
nature mocking bird song sans bot mot, 
braggadocio, rodomontade, et cetera
distinct, ear splitting, 
and fractal heaving snap, crackle and pop, 
cacophonously fabulous, incredulously humongous, 
and thunderously voluminous...

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Part III – Voice of the Inner Child

I feel such sweet sorrow…
From where has it come?
A friend…
I have one, do I not?
Yes, I do…
Perhaps my friend is in my hand…
No, my friend is not here.
Well...

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WordScape Triptych  #1

Coming from the Underworld as a ghost, just sauntering out of the depths like you did;
With all the rest of us just watching and wondering what you were going to say;
Tell us...

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Perplexed by riddles and betrayed by Time,
The lonely spirit travels far adrift
On the horizon’s dim and distant line,
In search of other souls, both strong and swift.

From the eternal temple of the gods
Come roiling forth three...

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Written: April 09, 2025, 

                 *************

I will be faithful and reveal to you the facts,
You are mine in life...

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Spain in Rain Falls



There’s something different
About the rain in Spain
And being an English man
And well versed in rainfall
I should know a thing or two
About rain

It still falls horizontal
Occasionally with a side to side wiggle
But it...

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I stand alone and gaze upon the field full of crosses,
In silence, with an empty soul, I think of the days that have passed,
My pockets are full of sad thoughts, like faithful dogs,
I stand alone...

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In the quietness of dusk, when shadows stretch long over the fields of memory,
Memories rise like reflected ghosts, wandering through the labyrinth of thoughts,
Taking me back to the times of childhood, when backyards were boundless...

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ANCESTORS

Lady Liberty

And the Lady cries:
"Bring me your lame, maime,
Your poor, your Refugees."

Came by the Mayflower
And others like her,
The first Settlers came
from near and far;
Men, women, children,
old and young.

Bellowing sails flapping 
in tempestuous winds,
People courageously sailed,
Getting...

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The radio controlled emotion of a steel framed explosion happens not once nor twice or three times. Several sharp impacts equals a scrambled surface. Where no glorification of swamp residue exists for it glows and...

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Ooh a triangular prism made out of eighteen purple sashed curtains. Wow. Movement. Vortex of a synopsis and a synchronised swirling pattern. When a pea jumps into a swimming pool and performs the backflip it...

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Something created. Does the creator think ahead
or spill a storm. Rain happens. We supply the
reasons. Evaporation of water collecting over
huge expanses, condensed and pushed as clouds
over the land. We say it makes us sad or...

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Oh lord hear the lonesome cowboys lullaby, singing beneath
The vast prairie open sky.
Hush, do they not lull the restless cattle to sleep, by a soft
Undertones sweet melody.
Drifting plains men, singing of the sorrows broken hearted,
And...

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I dive into thoughts, wishing my verses would soar ever higher,
Like a bird with boundless wings, lost in distant and divine horizons,
But they only float, like water birds with netted feet,
Tilting their wings in vain,...

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Seasons pass as tendencies fall
Tripping over laws that order societal resolve
A laughing matter not for the victims assailants never caught
Consuming thoughts processed opposite happy holidays

Timely reminders of days with doubt of faith
Following what remnants of...

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An old cowpoke throwed his leg over the well-worn saddle horn,
And tilted back his ten-gallon hat that was sweat-stained and worn.
From his shirt pocket he took a Bull Durham tobacco pouch,
And with one hand made...

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