Headlights (Zhu Zhu) Poem by Denis Mair
Headlights (Zhu Zhu)
by Zhu Zhu
(translated by Denis Mair)
Returning late one night
Headlight beams ahead
Measure the land like a ruler.
My car's spinning tires
Face the hugeness of that black backdrop.
The ruler is short, needs to take it in sections,
Which makes me like a tailor
Taking note of places I pass.
On the parts already measured, darkness falls anew
Smoothing out imprints of hand and ruler.
A perfect tailor keeps the sections in mind
An imperfect tailor's mind gets scrambled,
Needs to go over the same ground,
And I am the imperfect one, just an apprentice
Scolded for failing to get the simplest things right;
At least my clumsiness attempts something genuine.
A touching poem, fascinatingly rendered and a true oriental polite insight by Zhu Zhu, a fantastic chinese poet. Due to your excellent translation and words, Denis, I can enjoy this amazing poet and his dashing poems. Thankfully yours from the deepest of my being, GBU in Abundance. A 10++++++++++ for the voting/rating.
Thank you so much for giving us access to poems by Zhu Zhu and others, you give us depth and breadth to our poetic experience. Thank you from all of us literature lovers! ! !
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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5/4/2024 7:54:57 AM # 1.0.0.1119
His TRUE ORIENTAL POLITE INSIGHT of a Chinese Poet, I cite Zhu Zhu's last SIX lines: A perfect tailor keeps the sections in mind, An imperfect tailor's mind gets scrambled, Needs to go over the same ground, And I am the imperfect one, just an apprentice, Scolded for failing to get the simplest things right; At least my clumsiness attempts something genuine. Marvelous! BOTH the translation and the poem.10++++++