– Ezra Pound. excerpt from Canto IV

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• Pound_encounter_w/WangWei

• poetryfoundation/cantoIV

 

Grainy apricot cut into beams.
Fragrant reeds woven into a roof;
Unaware that clouds among pillars
Went to make rain among men.

– Wang Wei. Grainy Apricot Heights

translated by Wai-lim Yip

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• poetrychina/wang_wei/3

let there be new flowering
in the fields let the fields
turn mellow for the men
let the men keep tender
through the time let the time
be wrested from the war
let the war be won
let love be
at the end

– Lucille Clifton. let there be new flowering

I’ll give you my well-filled life
and you give me a view of the planets
No one exactly dies
Rather souls change their looks and address
Death my shadow who will lead me
you the third in two
you hesitant colour of sapphires and topaz
you blood of the peacock
you poacher of a fox’s heart
you, our delirium!

– Mahmoud Darwish. excerpt from Mural

translated by John Berger and Rema Hammami