7
reader's thoughts must carry on.
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This poem is an example of
the ferocious difficulty of putting across the idea in another language, while not losing the cameo effect.
Softly drips the clepsydra
Dim the incense glows
Keen keen, a blade of wind
Blows, rests, blows:
春色惱人眠不滿
:南風陣:郭
上眠
M] T
Along the wall, fantastic
Mooncast shadows creep
Spring torments torments me
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Will not let me sleep.
I forget who it's by; I have mislaid my copy, only I have many of these poems by heart; in [wartime prison] camp there was plenty of time for learning Tang and Sung poems by heart.
I leave it to others to judge the quality of his translations and whether his verse was merely minor; instinctively, I find it comforting when those wielding power spend their spare hours writing poetry. But that is an illogical piece of sentimentality. Mao Zedong was a versifier. And a few weeks ago I interviewed President Ershad of Bangladesh. After telling me how well his country was progressing towards the restoration of full democracy (though admittedly the opposition and the press were, he felt, abusing their new freedoms), he presented me with another volume of his somewhat sentimental verse (REVIEW, 12 Nov.).
Almost as soon as he got back to Dhaka, the rage against his rule exploded against a man who wrote:
Peace, only peace
that is all we want.
DEREK DAVIES
Reprinted, by permission, from the Far Eastern Economic Review, 3rd Dec., 1987.