About the Author
Books

POETRY  
PROSE
ESSAYS
INTERVIEW
From the book Kliazma and Yauza
From the book The Wild Rose
From the book Tristan and Isolde
From the book Old Songs
From the book Gates. Windows. Arches
From the book Stanzas in the Manner of Alexander Pope
From the book Stellae and Inscriptions
From the book The Iambic Verses
The Chinese Travelogue  
From An Unfinished Book
From the book The Evening Song
From the book Elegies
From the book The Beginning of a Book
The Chinese Travelogue
(1986)

If you could dull its perspicuity, free it from chaos, limit its gleam,
liken it to a grain of dust, then it would seem to exist clearly.
Lao-Tse
8

The roofs are raised at the edges
like eyebrows in surprise.
What do you mean? Really? I’m happy to the
bottom of my heart!
From these terraces everything
dear to man can be seen eternally:
the dry banks, the silver-yellow rivers,
the scrawled letter of the bushes –
a love note.
Two passers-by bow
low to each other on the pontoon bridge
and a swallow brings the height
in on a teaspoon.
Heart drops, healing potion.
However, no one is sick in China,
for the sky itself is an expert
at acupuncture.

Richard McKane

***

8

Roofs raised at the edges
like amazed eyebrows:
Really? you don’t say? I’m so glad.
Terraces, from which you can always see
everything a person loves to see:
dry banks, silvery-yellow rivers,
a broken line of bushes–like a love letter.
Two passersby bow low to one another on a pontoon bridge
and a swallow brings you
a teaspoon of height:
heart medicine, a healing potion.
By the way, in China no one gets sick:
the heavens know how to strike at the right time with a long needle.

Andrew Wachtel
1. I was surprised by...
2. The pond speaks...
3. They don’t fall, though they fall...
4. There, on the hill...
5. Do you know...
6. I shall only see...
7. The boat flies...
 8. The roofs are raised at the edges...
9. Unhappy...
10. Great is the artist who knows no debt...
11. With tenderness and depth...
12. Perhaps you are the precious ring of the spirit...
13. Will we really part...
14. Flute answers flute...
15. They say, they have gone on the white road...
16. You know that I love you so much...
17. When we decide to set out...
18. Let us praise our earth...
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