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WATERING HORSES AT A SPRING BENEATH THE GREAT WALL

Riverside grass so lavish and azure~green,
those distant roads, I’m longing in gossamer

skeins unceasing, distant roads I can’t bear
longing, longing. He’s in midnight dreams,

in dreams, him so close beside me, suddenly
sensing we’re away in some strange village,

strange village in a strange far-off place,
then I’m tossing and turning without him.

Dead mulberries understand heaven’s wind,
and lakewater understands heaven’s cold.

Inside our gate, women were all fussing over
themselves, silent, afraid of talking to me,

then finally a traveler from distant lands
appeared, bringing a treasure, a love-carp.

I called the children, let them open it up,
and inside was a letter-scroll, a foot of silk.

I knelt long, knelt reading that foot of silk,
that treasure - but what could it really say?

lt began saying we must eat well, and more,
and ended saying he’ll long for us forever.