Hilltop Days

My desk faces a wall-to-wall French window.
From there, past a verandah draped with spring vines,
The platinum mirror of the distant bay
Glittering with unreal beams of afternoon sunlight.
Nearby, a towering shade tree bisects my view.
On the other side, the water is opaque like a sleeping page.

Eyes on things are never to be dull and single-sighted.
Even the same scene at the same instant, lit by the same rays.
At different times of day, I experience different sea water,
Surrounding mountains, and its bayside neighborhoods
When under settling fog, it merges with white-out of sky.

Later, a blazing golden fruit hangs in the branches.
I am dizzied by its unexpected decent, my heartstrings are pulled.
In this rainy, foggy season of changeable skies,
I appreciate when sunlight penetrates through the clouds.
Some days battle lines of rain and sun shift many times,
As if complicated expression showing on the face of love.
I often step out in sunlight, return beaded with rain drops.

But a day like this is sure to end in perfect sunset.
Though cirrus layers start to hang dark over twilight trees.
Standing at the verandah, a little bleak, a little warm,
Hopeless splendor under grey clouds, like pears embellishing
Autumn’s hungry imaginings. As tinted lights flare, I go inside.
The bay’s curve appears as sparkling pearls dispersing at night.

Often I sit before my desk the whole day, writing and perusing,
Gazing out the window in thought, listening to birds singing,
Hearing but not seeing the flap of their wings.
They must be flitting through bushes down the slope.
Leaves fresh from rain like my lover’s lips, wan red and petal-like.
Thinking of this, signal waves jolt through my webs of ambiguities. I rise,
Put on some Blues, brew tea that gives off sent of chrysanthemum.

At night, rain falls unnoticed. Winds starts to lash the roof
With branches, as if Beethoven’s Fifth leaping up from darkness,
Rousing me from a bed of old dreams.
At this moment, my lover’s body grows distinct. I tremble
And relish the slide of tongue-tip between thighs.

Translated by Denis Mair

Last updated: November 29, 2004