Tu Fu: Restless Night

 

Restless Night

As bamboo chill drifts into the bedroom,
Moonlight fills every corner of our
Garden. Heavy dew beads and trickles.
Stars suddenly there, sparse, next aren’t.

Fireflies in dark flight flash. Waking
Waterbirds begin calling, one to another.
All things caught between shield and sword,
All grief empty, the clear night passes.

Opposite a Post-Station, The Boat Moonlight Beside a Monastery - Tu Fu

Opposite a Post-Station, The Boat Moonlight Beside a Monastery

My boat mirroring a clear, bright moon,
Deep in the night, I leave lanterns unlit:

A gold monastery beyond green maples,
A red post tower here beside white water,

Faint, drifting from a city, a crow's cry fades.
Full of wild grace, egrets sleep.

Hair, white, a guest of lakes and rivers,
I tie blinds open, and sit alone, sleepless.

-Tu Fu (712-770)
Translated by David Hinton in 'Mountain Home: the Wilderness poetry of Ancient China', 2014, pg 115