Spilling the Moon

Illustration from Edmund Dulac's

Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1909)

THINKING OF LADY YANG AT MIDNIGHT
—Anonymous, Korea, c. 1100-1150

Watching alone by the ancient city wall,

Thinking of one who was too beautiful,

What did I see? What did I hear?

Moonlight, quivering over empty courtyards,

A voice calling out of the midnight shadows.

One name, her name, echoes across the silence.

Light feet, her feet, in shoes of peacock feathers,

Dance through the empty halls. Will they never rest?

Thinking of joys that ended and sorrows which never end

I find my white robe spangled with tears for her.

(Translated from the Korean by Jean S. Grigsby)

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FLIRTATION
—Attributed to Li Ch'ing-chao, twelfth century

After kicking on the swing,

Lasciviously, I get up and rouge my palms.

Thick dew on a frail flower,

Perspiration soaks my thin dress.

A new guest enters.

My stockings come down

And my hairpins fall out.

Embarrassed, I run away,

And lean flirtatiously against the door,

Tasting a green plum.

(Translated from the Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung)

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MARRIED LOVE
—Kuan Tao-sheng (1262-1319)

You and I

Have so much love,

That it

Burns like a fire,

In which we bake a lump of clay

Molded into a figure of you

And a figure of me.

Then we take both of them,

And break them into pieces,

And mix the pieces with water,

And mold again a figure of you,

And a figure of me.

I am in your clay.

You are in my clay.

In life we share a single quilt.

In death we will share one coffin.

(Translated from the Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung)

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EVENING ON THE MOUNTAIN:
SONG TO THE MOON IN THE WELL
—Yi Kyubo (1168-1241)

1

Blue water ripples the well at the corner of the mossy rock,

The new moon is beautifully etched therein.

I scoop out some water by only half a shadow enters my jar.

I fear I'll bring only half the golden mirror home.

2

A mountain monk coveted the moon;

he drew water, a whole jar full;

but when he reached his temple, he discovered

that tilting the jar meant spilling the moon.

(Translated from the Korean by Kevin O'Rourke)

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Today's LittleNip:

MOON
—Jusammi Chikako (c. 1300)

     On this summer night

All the household lies asleep,

     And in the doorway,

For once open after dark,

Stands the moon, brilliant, cloudless.

(Translated from the Japanese by Edwin A. Cranston)

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—Medusa

Illustration by Charles Livingston Bull for

Wood-Folk Comedies: The Play of Wild-Animal Life
on a Natural Stage 

by Wm. J. Long, 1920