Poems by Luo Fu

Beyond the Sea

When the sea is saltiest
I find
A pensive man squatting on a rock,
Certainly not that prone-to-blue
Evening cloud.

His quandary
Bright in the lighthouse.

he cannot swim back to the shore; for
His back ingrained in the sand
Is rolled away by the setting sun.
So he secretly marks the spot of the distant shipwreck
On his sole.

translated by Angela C.Y. Jung Palandri

Beyond Ashes
--To a dead friend

You were yourself,
Purity need no name;
Death's flowers bloom in the sober eye,
We kneel to the time turning to be ashes.

But we are nothing, red-faced
hiding in the pants' pocket like a forged coin.
You were the embryo of fire growing into flame;
No matter who provoked you with pomegranate pride
You'd raise your hands in rage, violently rise against the stream of perspiration.
You were the legendary half candle,
The other half beyond ashes.

translated by Angela C.Y. Jung Palandri

Beyond the Tears

If you fear my sobriety
Please open my window toward the dying city.
Don't search that phrase in my whiskers,
It's already dead--
Your eyes are its cemetery.

let's turn off all the lights
Except the one you unlit.

Someone tries to suck the freshness off my forehead after rain
And fiercely split me as if I were an iceberg
By the hearth I gladly see myself melt into spring water,
Smiling, I flow into his veins, and his spine.

translated by Angela C.Y. Jung Palandri