Мария Визи - A moon gate in my wall - собрание стихотворений

— So much to show, with humble pride and grateful,
to share and to enjoy, if they would knock
upon my gate, those small remembered playmates…

But I can hear the echo of their footsteps
running, then silenced far down winding alleys,
and in the myriad distant streets and cities
they cannot find the gateway to my house.

The temple halls are musty; daylight never
disturbs the corridors or narrow stairs.

Blackened by dust and incense smoke and years
the ancient tapestries along the walls
from high carved vaulted ceiling to the floor
breathe not a ripple in the stifled air.

When nightfall stills the last long wailing chant
and joss smoke mingles with the stale burnt oil,
then once again the tapestries awake
with rats that live behind them, galloping,
galloping all night long, like a division
of cavalry on a parade, or rushing
to mortal combat with an enemy.

We had walked many li over the flat autumn fields
and had reached the marshes
skirting the great lake.

Wild fowl were flying all over
under a blackening sky
and settling down urgently among the clumps of grass
seeking a refuge.

The vast expanse of lake was before us,
with nothing but tall grass growing profusely as far as
the eye could see
on all sides and behind us;
grass swaying
like a continuation of the lake surface.

Suddenly, without warning,
a sheet of wet white flakes fell from the sky,
and more followed, and more, hurrying,
swirling and joining the wind and the grass
in their frightening dance.
A storm.

Swathed in its lace of slime,
the pond sleeps
at sunset.

High above the adobe hut
and the boat landing
rises a sharp-horned yellow moon.

What a comforting and pleasing lot —
Who can say fate is unkind?
The delicate filigree of willow' leaves
is black against the violet evening sky.

Early snow falls,
like wafted cherry blossoms —
peaceful and lazy —
into the pond,

the green one, where willows drop
and late water lilies are blooming.

There could not be a brighter or a larger star
than the one climbing
the partly darkening sky, and
hesitating over the edge
of the pensive village.

San Shu was a boatman. He lived on an island
in the middle of the great Sung-Hwa river,
in the north.
He rowed his flat-bottomed boat
very skillfully across the wide yellow grey expanse
from the shore of the city to the grassy flatlands
on the other side,
where lay the villages and the farms.

The Sung-Hwa was a pleasant sunny stream
and it earned the boatman's bread
all summer.

From the direction of Mai Mai Cheng,
rising over the Gobi desert,
across the Great Wall,
came a wind.

It picked up the sands of the desert
and became thick and brown
as the sands themselves,
as it hurled its destructive phalanges
into battle,
row upon powerful row.

I got up in the morning with a brown blanket about me
brown sand in my eyes and ears
and gritting between my teeth
and but a white spot on the bed
where my head had rested.

But many centuries this Gobi wind has blown
covering with its sands
myriad human bones and ancient dwellings.

Some far-off day a child,
playing in the swift sand,
will take a beautiful polished white bone
that will have been me,

and will take it to her father,
to make her a flute,
to sing a song.

Серебряная церковь в чаше леса —
Моя любовь к тебе. Кругом деревья,
Украденные от тебя слова
И колокол, твоя последняя улыбка.
Дарованная мне, — повешен наверху.
Тот колокол звонит, когда ты входишь в лес.
Когда ты станешь около него.
Но звон его ненужный замолкает,
Когда ты начинаешь говорить.

Здесь, где в одном пятне освещена
поверхность темная земного шара,
когда спускается на землю ночь
и яркая звезда на запад тонет,
тускнеют краски и темнеет небо
огромное, в то время как земля
неторопливо крутится, и небеса
воротятся, как колесо, — впервые
как будто, вижу я сегодня ночью,
что небосвод, действительно, повсюду
вокруг нас, и что сами мы летим
в пространство, хоть о том и забываем.

Везде вокруг — стремленье, шторм и крики
всего оркестра вместе; человек
свой голос собственный так страстно ищет;
день шелуху свою роняет; птица
ночная, вспугнутая, встрепенется,
в борьбе царапаясь сквозь бурю звуков.

И в нише освещенной среди тьмы,
как в найденном убежище минутном,
средь солнц несущихся, окружены
толпою сил неведомых и княжеств,
здесь тысячи обретших вдруг свободу,
почувствовавших близость с этим светом.