FAREWELL POEM

Passion too deep seems like none.

While we drink, nothing shows but the smile that will not come.

The wax candles feel, suffer at partings:

Their tears drip for us until the sky brightens.

Tu Mu (803-52)

From: Poems of the Late T’ang translated from the Chinese with an introduction by A.C. Graham Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965

Of this poet, Graham says: “Tu Mu is most admired as the master of chueh-chu, the New Style quatrain with an AABA rhyme scheme, like that of Omar Khayyam. The swift elegance of his verses, running effortlessly within strict formal limits, cannot be captured in my easy-going sprung rhythms.”