Meditation on the Road. New Series. 1

Sonnet 5 


Venice

Feng Zhi, 1941

tr. Huiwen Zhang

I never will forget

That water city of the west,

A crystal of the human world,

A cluster of a thousand isolations.

Each isolation an island,

Each forging a friendship.

When you give me a hand,

A bridge across water;

When you give me a smile,

From the island opposite

A suddenly opened chamber window.

Waiting until the deep silent night,

Only to see the window shut,

And human traces fade from the bridge.