Long Hinges 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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Date:   May  2051

 Raining morning dawning. Everything is
Best and rest in all Hakim Households.
Hours passed and in Damian's dome
Dolly rose and gently kissed Damian.
"Rise my husband. Strong man I remember 
You." She...

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Conditions were harsh out in Kansas,
For the children and Sarah and Paul.
Neighbors and friends packed up and were gone;
Headed west they could hear fortune's call.
Never sure year to year of the harvest,
So their talents were...

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Greetings to those who would willingly seek admission to theater of the absurd. Zoltan Goliath and Otis Trench are masters of the avant-garde genre silent musicals for the imaginary stage, an art form sui generis....

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Once again it’s Saturday; the day when footy reigns supreme.
The Dogs are up against the Cats, the premier favoured team,
but I’ve got no doubts the mighty Dogs will surely cope with that.
I couldn’t think of...

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Love has a Southern flavor: honeydew,
ripe cantaloupe, the honeysuckle’s spout
we tilt to basking faces to breathe out
the ordinary, and inhale perfume ...

Love’s Dixieland-rambunctious: tangled vines,
wild clematis, the gold-brocaded leaves
that will not keep their order in...

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Tim’s father had been a refugee once he put down his fight and his gun

The story is that he embarked on the very last ship leaving East Prussia

Under siege tanks and bombs from above fireworks...

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Date   November  2019

Damian was glad to Be back home
Now he searched his room for anything 
Out  of place. He wanted the same
Set up that he had at Uncle Tyler's.
So they had...

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Walking down the alley behind the buildings on Royal street the Mandevilla and Jasmine vines line the sidewalk calming my stressed nerves.  The sweet fragrance of the flowers intoxicating my senses.  My luggage...

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Date:  April  2051
 
7 am the call resounded throughout 
Every Hakim Household. They had it
Blaring out onto the estate's public
Address system. "DJ heard it in 
His house clearly he was visibly 
Irritated. ...

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My wife and I were apartment managers for 18 grueling years that rented exclusively to college students, and - though everything I claim here is either disgusting or scary - or BOTH....it’s all true!



Well, it’s...

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We'd laid old George to rest the week before,
at ninety-one he now rejoined his wife,
no heirs to his estate, so one thing more
to do, and that's clear where he'd spent his life.
Downstairs had been quite...

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You want emotion...
Tell me, ask me, beg me to show you my soul, my secret place where my muses dwell.
My living hell. The tainted sea of all me, so what...so you can wash in the...

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4/8/24

Aww shucks
Still at the crux
In a state of flux
With reality still out of touch
I've been puzzled much
So I smoke a couple blunts
That's a double dutch
From dawn to dusk
I turned myself into a husk
Just so I...

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[My recent poem ‘The Dimly Lit House’ received a
Comment from Charles Messina that it could be a Tom and 
Jerry episode… what can I say? Something went ‘Ping!’]

       ...

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Since childhood I was always fascinated with nature
Curious to know how plants grow 
Always intrigued by the ingenuity of ants 
And mesmerized by the coordination 
And spectacular tactics of birds. 

Birds come in different colors...

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This is a rather nostalgic piece -


Meandering around on rural roads, in search of one-horse towns, with no place in particular to go,     
Connie - that’s my wife - and I,...

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an early 1970s piece -


The sun was close to down as I would drive the dusty road. 
I knew that this was going to be my last delivery load.

My mind began to wander as the...

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It has been ages since the laughter died, which was many suns ago,
Soon swept away by fleeting time, like the brief giggle of a rainbow.

My vacant halls now are silent, and the flower garden is...

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See them dressed in colors soldiers, regiment, British royal guards, guard bearskin, grandier guards, Buckingham palace guards dressed in scarlet red walking behind the queen’s casket and reminiscing the dead. Their tall bearskin hat almost...

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Once upon a night so bleak,
frozen silent laid the creek --
air of death, pushed, swore
and swore...as if were fists
pounded the frail, wood door;

shutters noised, bolting and
banging; metal hinges oddly
clanging – cupboard glasses
adding more tumultuous tang,...

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Does life exist between calamities 
or does it exist between parameters
lucky or bot, sight or hearing
visible or non-existent, circumstances or inferiority
a complex we don't understand nor leaves us standing
How much longer will these afflictions persist
how...

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Predictions work in twists of what makes life workable
High and often misconstrued by the dogma of science
Lies and damned lies and statistics for the insecure
Foes foretold surprise when the blindfolds shed masks
In the light of...

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The Dream

On it’s  final journey – destination – a coma –
realization, a stagnant pool of reflections,
images on fun house mirrors –
surrealistic paintings
upon the walls of times passing,
it’s life diminishing, slowly, upon wings
of a sorrowful,...

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The attic trunk, dirty, and oh so old
Had survived the many years untold
Sitting there midst the quiet dust
The hasp and hinges brown with rust

In the young girls’ mind she was compelled
To see what it was...

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