poetry ⁽⁹⁶⁾

Jujube May 17, 2026

Jian Jia

蒹葭苍苍，白露为霜。 所谓伊人，在水一方。 The reeds and rushes are deeply green, The white dew has turned to frost. The one of whom I think, Is somewhere by the water’s edge. —《蒹葭》 (Jian Jia)

Jujube April 26, 2026

Stars, Like Water Flowing

Stars, like water flowing from a jar, sprinkled upon the night. Like an artist from afar, painting a perfect light. A light veil of star light glows, touching our wandering heart. As we watch, nature shows, the true beauty of sacred art! — Rebecca Wiles

Jujube April 19, 2026

Sea-Fever

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by; And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking, And a…

Jujube April 5, 2026

Mountain Dialogue

问余何意栖碧山，笑而不答心自闲。 桃花流水窅然去，别有天地非人间。 You ask me why I make my home amid these green mountains; I smile and make no reply, for my heart is free of care. As peach blossoms flow downstream and are gone into the unknown, I have a world apart that is…

Jujube March 8, 2026

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

The only other sound’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. — Robert Frost

Jujube February 22, 2026

Visiting the Sky-Mother Mountain in a Dream: A Song of Farewell

脚著谢公屐， 身登青云梯。 半壁见海日， 空中闻天鸡。 … 列缺霹雳， 丘峦崩摧。 洞天石扉， 訇然中开。 Wearing the climbing shoes of Lord Xie, I ascend the ladder of blue clouds. Halfway up, I see the sun rising from the sea, In mid-air, I hear the rooster of heaven crow. … Lightning flashes…

Jujube February 8, 2026

The Darkling Thrush

I leant upon a coppice gate When Frost was spectre-grey, And Winter’s dregs made desolate The weakening eye of day. The tangled bine-stems scored the sky Like strings of broken lyres, And all mankind that haunted nigh Had sought their household fires. — Thomas Hardy

Jujube February 1, 2026

Autumn Words

晴空一鹤排云上， 便引诗情到碧霄。 A crane soars above the clouds and soars high, Lifts my poetic heart up to the azure sky. — Liu Yuxi 刘禹锡 (772-842)

Jujube January 25, 2026

Moonlight in the Lotus Pond

Moonlight flows like water, quietly pouring over leaves and flowers. A thin blue mist rises from the lotus pond. The leaves and blossoms seem rinsed in milk, or like a dream veiled in the lightest gauze. — Zhu Ziqing 朱自清 (1898-1948)

Jujube January 11, 2026

The Sea

I need the sea because it teaches me. I don’t know if I learn music or awareness, if it’s a single wave or its vast existence, or only its harsh voice or its shining suggestion of fishes and ships. The fact is that until I…

Jujube November 16, 2025

The Russian Song

In distant lands, on hill and plain, thus do I dream, when nights are long, — and memory gives back again the whisper of that long-lost song. — V. Nabokov

Jujube November 2, 2025

Rainy Day

The window holds the breath of rain. I sink into the blueness of sleep. Dream and daylight braid, as the shadows of the leaves sway.

Jujube October 26, 2025

Nocturnal Travels

I have no need, for my nocturnal travels, of ships, I have no need of trains. The moon’s above the checkerboard-like garden. The window’s open. I am set. — V. Nabokov

Jujube October 12, 2025

Hotel Room

Not quite a bed, not quite a bench. Wallpaper: a grim yellow. A pair of chairs. A squinty looking-glass. We enter — my shadow and I. — V. Nabokov

Jujube September 28, 2025

The University Poem #30

in that townlet in the towers’ shadow the sound of life was reckless clatter, the mixture of tipsy antiquity and of the present liveliness were healthful for me: my soul’s ready to relish everything beneath the moon, the ancient and the new. — V. Nabokov

Jujube September 21, 2025

We So Firmly Believed

We so firmly believed in the linkage of life, but now I’ve looked back — and it is astonishing to what a degree you, my youth, seem in tints not mine, in traits not real. — V. Nabokov

Jujube September 7, 2025

Cubes

Let us fold the wings of our visions. It’s night. Buildings, all angular, on each other topple. Shadows are fractured. The street lamp is a broken flame. — Vladmir Nabokov

Jujube August 24, 2025

Music

The fountain, loftily floating its wondrous, its silvery voice, plashes, and quivers, convoking mirages of love and of loss. — Vladimir Nabokov

Jujube August 17, 2025

Encountering Rain at Lone Mountain Temple

水鹭双飞起， 风荷一向翻。 – 白居易 The egret pair takes flight together, The lotus leaves sway in the breeze. – Bai Juyi (772-846)

Jujube August 10, 2025

The Deserted Village

Here as I take my solitary rounds, Amidst thy tangling walks, and ruined grounds, And, many a year elapsed, return to view Where once the cottage stood, the hawthorn grew – Oliver Goldsmith