Ou-Yang Hsiu (1007-1072) - Deep, Deep in the Shade of the Court

[flowersperish.livejournal.com]

Deep, deep in the shade of the court,
the oriole flutters and sings.
Sun warms, the mist warm; spring breathes heavily again.
Green eyes, the willow leaves now turn toward whom?
Across the distance, fragrant grass spreads out,
brooding, vacant, restlessly movinig.

Wordless, she suffers, wounded that he'd go.
A shudder of love for him, and no way to show it.
She worries and worries, and finds her heart unchanged:
over and over when she sleeps
the butterfly's imprisoned in her dreams.


(Ou-Yang Hsiu (1007-1072) - Deep, Deep in the Shade of the Court - translated by J.P. Seaton)

by W.H. Auden

[mery-bast.livejournal.com]

(I know we all heard this in Four Weddings and a Funeral. I just love this poem.)

Funeral Blues (aka Song IX)

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

-- W.H. Auden