And I matured in peace born of command,
in the nursery of the infant century,
and the voice of man was never dear to me,
but the breeze’s voice — that I could understand.
The burdock and the nettle I preferred,
but best of all the silver willow tree.
Its weeping limbs fanned my unrest with dreams;
it lived here all my life, obligingly.
I have outlived it now, and with surprise.
There stands the stump; with foreign voices other
willows converse, beneath our, beneath those skies,
and I am hushed, as if I’d lost a brother.
(originally published in POETRY, December, 2005)
Sonnet
by Jean de Gombaul
The Voice which sounds and sounds from Pole to Pole,
The hope and terror of both dead and living,
Which summons bodies, spirits, out of nothing,
And with one word called forth the cosmos whole.
The voice of God, which renders skeletal
The cedars, while the bramble’s fruit is swelling;
Which shelters and protects the poorest dwelling,
And wrecks the glory of the capital.
This thunder echoing, this sacred cry,
To which the mountains and the woods reply,
And which directs all things toward their end.
To which the highest height, the lowest tier,
Those dead, those not yet brought to be, attend,
My soul, it calls you, and you do not hear.
(originally published in The Formalist)
Pure Serene Music
by Li Ching Chao
We’d pick plum blossoms while we drank
within the snow, throughout the years,
pulling at petals to no good end,
soaking our clothes with pure white tears.
This year I’m at the end of the world.
My hair turns silver strand by strand,
and judging from the night wind’s force,
plum blossoms will be scarce at hand.
(rendering by Jennifer Reeser)
Jennifer Reeser is the author of An Alabaster Flask and Winterproof. Her poems, translations of Russian and French literature, and critical essays appear in such journals as POETRY, The National Review, The Formalist, PIVOT, Botteghe Oscure, Cumberland Poetry Review, The Lyric, Iambs & Trochees, The Dark Horse, Unsplendid and Mezzo Cammin. Her work is a two-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize, and has received awards from The Lyric magazine and The World Order of Narrative and Formalist Poets. In 2006, she was a participant on the panel for Russian/English translation at the West Chester University annual conference. Her website may be found at www.geocities.com/jdreeser. She lives in southern Louisiana.
And I matured in peace born of command,