The Jade Mountain/With My Brother at the South Study

by Wang Changling

WITH MY BROTHER AT THE SOUTH STUDY

Thinking in the Moonlight of Vice-Prefect
Ts'uêi in Shan-yin

 

Lying on a high seat in the south study,We have lifted the curtain—and we see the rising moonBrighten with pure light the water and the groveAnd flow like a wave on our window and our door.It will move through the cycle, full moon and then crescent again,Calmly, beyond our wisdom, altering new to old.. . . Our chosen one, our friend, is now by a limpid river—Singing, perhaps, a plaintive eastern song.He is far, far away from us, three hundred miles away.And yet a breath of orchids comes along the wind.

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