A poem by Wang Yisun translated from the Chinese, below, by Bijaan Noormohamed
碧桃
绀葩乍坼。
笑烂漫娇红,不是春色。
换了素妆,重把青(一作素)螺轻拂。
旧歌共渡烟江,却占玉奴标格。
风霜峭(一作悄)、瑶台种时,付与仙骨。
闲门昼掩凄恻。
似淡月梨花,重化清魄。
尚(一作常)带唾痕香凝,怎忍攀摘?
嫩绿渐满(一作暖)溪阴,蔌蔌新粉云出。
芳艳冷、刘郎朱应认得。
***
The Mythical Peach Tree
I see your petals first: your radiant red follicles questioning me.
iiiiiiiiiiNow I know
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiIt’s not time.
I look beyond you, and see the lush fields of my ancestors,
iiiiiiiiiiTheir viridescent souls rising in an army of snails
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMarching toward an end with no ending.
They sing, as they float
iiiiiiiiiiiOne
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiBy
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiOne
Along the Yanjiang, bounded in shackles.
The cold wind, howling as it snatches souls,
Aether receives them and transforms divine.
Yet they are pained by day, — moved, even.
When the pear blossom blooms under the cold moonlight,
iiiiiiiiiiiThey are
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiire – generated.
I smell those fragrant pearls, in their equinoctial equilibrium
iiiiiiiiiiSo how can I bear to pick them,
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiDestroy them?
Light greens of spring pour through the shaded brook,
iiiiiiiiiiiAs the flowers fall from the emerging clouds.
When Adam and Eve, Liu Lang and Liu Xi, see your beauty
iiiiiiiiiiiiAll stops …
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiAnd disappears.