Even the east wind cannot bear it any longer;
it turns into a secret light…
The Terrace of Yen
Li Shang-yin
Dawn already sad
I cast my net into the sea
as if coral might cling and grow
What vision
what beauty
could I leave the world?
How lazy I have been!
doomed by my own nature
a cinched belt with no feeling
~
a secret light
It listens
as it listened to a praying child
solely for one who is sad
for a moment
an egg-shaped pearly moonstone
emanating its own light
there
in your hand
then it passes
~
and enters the western sea
so earth can renew herself
and the few will be
maybe simpler
maybe wise
The harms we have done
will be like scars on rhyolite
Moss will cling to what remains