Showing posts with label Shen Chou. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shen Chou. Show all posts

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Old Scholar Under Autumn Trees (Anniversarius 48)



Translated  by Brett Rutherford

     From a Chinese Painting and Poem by Shen Chou, 1470 CE.

Gone, gone, gone. Gone to the west
wind, the leaves have fled. Still, there is
sun, still some shade under half-
disrobed maples. I loosen
my collar, I just lean back
and read my book. No clock, no
appointments, all idleness.
It is a long book; I have
all the Autumn ahead
To read, or to gaze on up
at the sky that pulls on me.
Here below -- or on up there --
who knows what I shall do next?


Op. 1050, January 19, 2020, from a 2006 FB post.