keith holyoak

Moonlit Night
Du Fu (712-770 CE)

      Tonight the moon
is also full in Fuzhou,
        where my wife can only
wait and watch alone.
 
        I’m sad to think
of my little sons and daughters,
        too young to know
why I’m far away in Changan.
 
        Her cloud of hair
must be damp from the scented mist,
        her jade-white arms
chilled as the light pours down.
       
        When will we both
lean at the open window,
        drying our tears
in the glow of an autumn moon?

© 2006 by Keith Holyoak (translator)
First printed in Measure (2006)