Flaming June
Painting by Sir Frederick Leighton
Painting by Sir Frederick Leighton
WEARY
—Fan Tseng Hsiang, 1846-1931
She did not even take the time
To lay aside her robes,
And her jeweled pins
Are twisted all askew.
The tresses of her hair, disordered,
Lie as clouds
Against the silken gauze
That veils her jade-like form.
Her head droops wearily
Upon the pillow of red sandalwood;
Her face, half-turned away,
Relaxed in sleep,
Is a perfect lotus bud.
______________________
MY LADY WALKS
—Fan Tseng Hsiang
Through the long gallery
You pass,
Turning ever and anon
To watch your shadow—
And to display your slender waist.
Slowly you walk, And lightly,
Lifting with your jade-like hand
Your silken robe.
Your passing
Is like summer rains
On Wu Shan's crest,
The whisper of the gentle wind,
The drifting of a cloud.
_____________________
A GLIMPSE OF BEAUTY
—Chien Liang Tse (died 1402)
Laughing and teasing
She walks to and fro
With swaying arms.
Now she pretends she is timid,
And lifts her silken sleeve
To hide her blush.
It covers the red embroidery
Of her coat,
So that only vaguely can I see
The full curves of her snowy breast
Beneath.
_____________________
JUST SIXTEEN
—Hsu Chien
Standing there
In the flickering candle light,
Freed from your silken robes,
You are more beautiful than precious jade,
And more fragrant than those orchids
Beside your ivory bed.
With such charm of face and form
Who can believe
That you have spent these long spring months
Alone?
___________________
WAITING IN THE LANE
—Yun Shou P'ing
As I waited
In the shadowy lane
All overgrown with moss,
A startled wild goose
Flew up
Beside the path.
She is coming!
The scent of her rouge
Intoxicates,
And her hesitating footsteps
Strangely stir
My anxious heart.
A ray of light
From her lantern
Gleams softly on her hair,
And she walks so gently
That the dust
Is not disturbed
Beneath her feet.
Now she leans
Against the wall,
Her face half-hidden
In her sleeve.
Ah,
She is as beautiful
As a nymph from Paradise!
(Today's poetry is from A Garden of Peonies: Translations fo Chinese Poems into English Verse by Henry H. Hart, Stanford University Press, 1938.)
____________________
—Medusa
Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)
SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:
Journals (free publications): Rattlesnake Review14 is now available at The Book Collector; contributors and subscribers should have received theirs by now. If you're none of those, and can't get down to The Book Collector, send two bux (for postage) to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you a copy. If you want more than one, please send $2 for the first one and $1 for copies after that. Next deadline, for RR15, is August 15. VYPER6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets10 (for kids 0-12) is also at The Book Collector; next deadline is Oct. 1.
Books/free broadsides: June's releases include Tom Miner's chapbook, North of Everything; David Humphreys' littlesnake broadside, Cominciare Adagio; and #3 in B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, this one featuring Jane Blue.
ZZZZZZZ: Shh! The Snake is sleeping! There will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August. Then we return with a bang on September 12, presenting Susan Kelly-DeWitt's new chapbook, Cassiopeia Above the Banyan Tree. See the online journal, Mudlark, for a hefty sample of poems from her book; that’s http://www.unf.edu/mudlark/. Also coming in the Fall: new issues of the Review, Snakelets and VYPER [see the above deadlines], plus more littlesnake broadsides from NorCal poets near and far, and a continuation of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series—including an anthology of interviews to be released for Sacramento Poetry Month (October).
—Fan Tseng Hsiang, 1846-1931
She did not even take the time
To lay aside her robes,
And her jeweled pins
Are twisted all askew.
The tresses of her hair, disordered,
Lie as clouds
Against the silken gauze
That veils her jade-like form.
Her head droops wearily
Upon the pillow of red sandalwood;
Her face, half-turned away,
Relaxed in sleep,
Is a perfect lotus bud.
______________________
MY LADY WALKS
—Fan Tseng Hsiang
Through the long gallery
You pass,
Turning ever and anon
To watch your shadow—
And to display your slender waist.
Slowly you walk, And lightly,
Lifting with your jade-like hand
Your silken robe.
Your passing
Is like summer rains
On Wu Shan's crest,
The whisper of the gentle wind,
The drifting of a cloud.
_____________________
A GLIMPSE OF BEAUTY
—Chien Liang Tse (died 1402)
Laughing and teasing
She walks to and fro
With swaying arms.
Now she pretends she is timid,
And lifts her silken sleeve
To hide her blush.
It covers the red embroidery
Of her coat,
So that only vaguely can I see
The full curves of her snowy breast
Beneath.
_____________________
JUST SIXTEEN
—Hsu Chien
Standing there
In the flickering candle light,
Freed from your silken robes,
You are more beautiful than precious jade,
And more fragrant than those orchids
Beside your ivory bed.
With such charm of face and form
Who can believe
That you have spent these long spring months
Alone?
___________________
WAITING IN THE LANE
—Yun Shou P'ing
As I waited
In the shadowy lane
All overgrown with moss,
A startled wild goose
Flew up
Beside the path.
She is coming!
The scent of her rouge
Intoxicates,
And her hesitating footsteps
Strangely stir
My anxious heart.
A ray of light
From her lantern
Gleams softly on her hair,
And she walks so gently
That the dust
Is not disturbed
Beneath her feet.
Now she leans
Against the wall,
Her face half-hidden
In her sleeve.
Ah,
She is as beautiful
As a nymph from Paradise!
(Today's poetry is from A Garden of Peonies: Translations fo Chinese Poems into English Verse by Henry H. Hart, Stanford University Press, 1938.)
____________________
—Medusa
Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)
SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:
Journals (free publications): Rattlesnake Review14 is now available at The Book Collector; contributors and subscribers should have received theirs by now. If you're none of those, and can't get down to The Book Collector, send two bux (for postage) to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726 and I'll mail you a copy. If you want more than one, please send $2 for the first one and $1 for copies after that. Next deadline, for RR15, is August 15. VYPER6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets10 (for kids 0-12) is also at The Book Collector; next deadline is Oct. 1.
Books/free broadsides: June's releases include Tom Miner's chapbook, North of Everything; David Humphreys' littlesnake broadside, Cominciare Adagio; and #3 in B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series, this one featuring Jane Blue.
ZZZZZZZ: Shh! The Snake is sleeping! There will be no Snake readings/releases in July or August. Then we return with a bang on September 12, presenting Susan Kelly-DeWitt's new chapbook, Cassiopeia Above the Banyan Tree. See the online journal, Mudlark, for a hefty sample of poems from her book; that’s http://www.unf.edu/mudlark/. Also coming in the Fall: new issues of the Review, Snakelets and VYPER [see the above deadlines], plus more littlesnake broadsides from NorCal poets near and far, and a continuation of B.L. Kennedy's Rattlesnake Interview Series—including an anthology of interviews to be released for Sacramento Poetry Month (October).
