Chinese Poets Day

何威廉

Chinese Poets Day
By William He

His sleeves stream upon the wind,
Among the starry eddies of his hair,
His portrait stalks reed leaves and mugwort tunnel.
The sorrow and giddy specter,
Crowding the pale pinks into rocky slope,
Stitching torn seams with threads drawn from heart.
Miluo mingles its stubborn lament,
Veiled melancholy is out of shrine's sight,
The river flows witnesses myriad life cycle dramas.
Trawling sleep from his eyes,
The fisherman's mind as squid's emulsions,
Tremulous shadow twists in paddlefish's eyes.

A quarrel of weather and river in the windy spiral,
Calamus goes giddily through the swamp,
Achelous beginning in the intricate water.
The clouds' ode to blood oranges,
The wet pomegranates are shining,
The boats whisper memory his life bled streams.
Epiphany of slow-motion,
Has the images frozen in an age warp,
When the fact fails him he questions his senses.
Five-color silk thread,
In pincers of the boiling circle,
Is nicking in the locks of time.


澡兰香 端午
作者：何威廉

丝悬玉臂，
艾作灵符，
裹着悯嗟叶脉。
伤情往事，
剪破红绡，
只见半妆梅额。
九歌声、
香草佳人，
澄沙烟光孑立。
渔父曲、
分明苦涩，
零残幽律。

忽起平波两尺，
走唱菖蒲，
小停河伯。
云吟橘颂，
雨湿榴花，
击鼓水滨灵魄。
视频中、
恍惚三闾，
披发骑麟睨诘。
五色线、
隔岸相交，
拴牢辰刻。


Notes:
“Chinese Poets’ Day”: “Dragon Boat Festival”, the English translated name of the festival, and its other name is “Double Fifth Festival”. In China, the festival was also celebrated as "Poets' Day" in honor of Qu Yuan, who is known as China's first poet. Chinese citizens traditionally throw bamboo leaves filled with cooked rice into the water and it is also customary to eat tzungtzu and rice dumplings. The festival was long marked as a cultural holiday in China.
"Miluo": Miluo River is famous for the prominent poet Qu Yuan. According to the legend, after Qu's suicide in the Miluo River, local villagers rowed out on the river to search for his body, but failed. In order to keep fish and evil spirits away from his body, the villagers splashed the water with their paddles and beat drums. They also threw lumps of rice into the river to feed the fish, so that they would not eat Qu Yuan's body.
“Achelous”: Greek Akheloios, shape-shifting Greek river god who was the personification of the Achelous River, one of the longest rivers in Greece. Achelous, who was worshipped as the god of fresh water, was chief among his 3,000 brothers, and all springs, rivers, and oceans were believed to issue from him.