J.P Seaton
Bright Moon, White Clouds: Selected Poems of Li Po
from “Two Ballads of Chiang-an”
By the gate, the footprints that you left:
each one grows green with moss,
so deep I cannot sweep them.
Arthur Waley makes much of a repeated “m” sound and so the moss persists:
In front of the door, the tracks you once made
One by one have been covered by green moss—
Moss so thick that I cannot sweep it away,
Interesting, in one the moss cannot be swept away and in the other, the footprints.
The crib:
[door] [front] [slow] [travel] [footprint]
[one] [one] [grow] [green] [moss]
[moss] [deep] [not] [can] [sweep]
And so we want to combine Seaton and Waley:
By the front door, your footprints
one by one grown green with moss–
moss so deep I cannot sweep away
And so for day 3025
24.03.2015