Works

Ballad of the Army Wagons, Border Campaigning, Shih Hao, and others.

The Temple of Zhuge Liang, Birthplace of Wang Qiang, A Woman of Quality, Passing the Night at Headquarters, andA Song of Painting: To General Cao Ba

A Long Climb, A Spring View, and On a Moonlight Night
 
 

Selected Poems
Song of the Autumn Wind and the Straw Hut
           A good rain knows its season
           And comes when spring is here;
           On the heels of the wind it slips secretly into the night,
           Silent and soft, it moistens everything.
           Now clouds hang black above the country roads,
           A lone boat on the river sheds a glimmer of light;
           At dawn we shall see splashes of rain-washed red --
           Drenched, heavy blooms in the City of Brocade.*
 

The Winsome Bride
A winsome bride, surpassing fair,
                  Secluded lives in a bleak glen.
                         To noble name
                         She can lay claim;
           Yet late brought low, must needs repair
                  To the wild woods, unseen of men.

           Of old in the fell Border fray*
                  Her brothers all were foully slain.
                         Then titles great
                         And proud estate
           To what avail? There as they lay,
                  Their bones their kinsfolk sought in vain.

           All scorn the hapless: all in life
                  Like to a flickering candle blows.
                         Her lord did prove
                         A light-of-love:
           Another maid he took to wife.
                  Sweet as a lily or a rose.

           The flower that shuts its leaves at night,
                  Though void of sense, its hour will know.
                         No teal upion**
                         The lake sleep lone.
           Yet, all for his new love's delight,
                  He thinks not of his old love's woe.

           Clear on the hills the springlet shines,
                  But muddied runs adown the dale.
                         Each precious stone
                         That she did own
           Her maids have sold: rude mountain vines
                  To mend their cabin's roof they trail.

           No bloom she plucks to braid her hair,
                  But only sheafs of cypress*** spray.
                         In thin green sleeves
                         Beneath the leaves
           Of tall bamboos she lingers there,
                  In winter's cold, at close of day.
 
 

Links
Birthplace
Biography
Review
Momma West's Website
 
 

Mike and Robbie