Du Fu Poems For The End Of The Human Age

 I have become a fan of the Tang Dynasty Chinese poet Du Fu. Many of his writings were written at a time when the Tang period, one of the greatest flowerings in the history of civilization was shattering. The difference, Chinese civilization survived to flower many more times. For ours, this may be the last flowering. I have gently adjusted the English translations, wishing I could read more than a few characters of Chinese in the original. I altered two of his most famous poems to fit with our future. His poems offer the promise of rebirth from ruins, mine do not.

Spring View

The nation is ruined and mountains and rivers are forever unstable

This spring the city is burned and nothing grows

Touched by the times even flowers weep tears and then die

Fearing leaving the birds desiccated hearts.

Fires burn all the time now

 

Spring Prospect

The nation shattered, mountains and rivers, unlivable.

City in spring, grass and trees burgeoning, before shattered by storm.

Sensing the times, blossoms draw tears before shriveling

Birds are dead.

Beacon fires of ever present battles burn,

A letter from home worth ten thousand in gold, but home is gone forever.

White hairs, fewer for the scratching,

Soon too few to hold a hairpin up.