浑漫语 Any Which Way Poetry Readings

transcript: https://any-which-way-poetry.tumblr.com/post/725401622781526016 Guest episode from ghoul, my friend and frequent collaborator, presenting Li Shangyin's 无题·相见时难别亦难 "Untitled (finding time to meet is hard; parting is hard too)" in three interwoven translations. 相见时难别亦难，东风无力百花残。 春蚕到死丝方尽，蜡炬成灰泪始干。 晓镜但愁云鬓改，夜吟应觉月光寒。 蓬山此去无多路，青鸟殷勤为探看。 --- finding time to meet is hard; parting is hard too. the east wind brings in the new season gentle, but it withers the flowers all the same. spring silkworms until they die spin out worries without rest; a candle burns down to ash and only then its tears begin to dry. in the morning mirror you comb over and over your lovely hair. you recite verse instead of sleeping, in the cold light of the moon— but there’s not much road between here and the queen mother’s mountain. she’s close; her green bird always comes to check on you. --- we had a hard time meeting, I had a hard time leaving you the flowers wither when the spring wind's all blown through the silkworm sits and spins her thoughts out till the very last the candle turns to ash and suddenly the tears are in your past at sunrise check my mirror and my roots are showing through at moonrise stumbling over psalms while my lips turn blue a mile or two on down the road is the immortal mountain queen mother's crow says girl stop sitting counting days without him --- Further reading: W. May, In the Same Light: 200 Tang Poems for Our Century (2022) https://bookshop.org/p/books/in-the-same-light-200-tang-poems-for-our-century/18900279?ean=9781734035162 translator's notes https://garden-ghoul.tumblr.com/post/701131506655133696/tonight-an-untitled-poem-by-our-favorite-dude-li my Dessa pastiche translation https://leahsfiction.neocities.org/posts/li-shangyin-untitled-meeting-is-hard-2/