The River and the Lake
Half April days were forfeit by the moon
When the cold flames alit from the sky,
Dry leaves are consumed by the whirl,
Gone and drowned to the dark bottom.
A woman was resting on a river bank,
Her hand idling over her bosom,
Thousand night eyes watching her
and flowing with the dim water curse.
My query ripped the stillness
Of the hushing cicadas on the trees:
“Do you think love is like this river?
Eager to travel by open seas?
My heart flows like the fire trail
Of the falling star in the endless sky.”
She blinked and I saw a tear,
A tear I saw before she said:
“Then you do not love me, woe me…”
And she threw a pebble on the water…
“This is like a kiss and nothing has changed…”
The waters flowed among the weed…
The waters flowed among the weed…
“My love is like a lake with cold waters
Waiting the sun to rise on the horizon,
The swallow can hunt on my surface
for the darting fishes without success:
in my depth there is a siren’s melody:
which voyager will be too bold to hear?
The sky is blue as the virgin cloth
And like the mirror-like surface of my soul.”
I leaned and breathed on her lips,
and when she breathed on my lips
The air was cool and her heart silent –
But on her eyes, water lilies I could see.”
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