POEM TIME and You Will LOVE It

I generally hate quotes/poems/song lyrics of any type on blog/Facebook posts (especially the Facebook posts.) I don't care about your most deep, inner thoughts and how you feel they link so brilliantly to a Taylor Swift or Likin Park song. But, I like them on mine. Probably because it's a poem translated by Ezra Pound, and it's brilliant. It's a poem I first read in my Intro to Poetry class at Snow (thanks, Rosier.) I didn't fully grasp it then, but it means a lot more to me now. So give it a shoot. Be patient. Go slowly. Above all, ignore the line breaks for the most part, and no sing-songy voices please.

The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter

While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead
I played about the front gate, pulling flowers.
You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,
You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums.
And we went on living in the village of Chokan:
Two small people, without dislike or suspicion.

At fourteen I married My Lord you.
I never laughed, being bashful.
Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.
Called to, a thousand times, I never looked back.

At fifteen I stopped scowling,
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours
Forever and forever and forever.
Why should I climb the look out?

At sixteen you departed,
You went into far Ku-to-yen, by the river of swirling eddies,
And you have been gone five months.
The monkeys make sorrowful noises overhead.

You dragged your feet when you went out.
By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses,
Too deep to clear away!
The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.
The paired butterflies are already yellow with August.
Over the grass in the West garden;
They hurt me. I grow older.
If you are coming down through the narrows of the river Kiang,
Please let me know beforehand,
And I will come out to meet you
As far as Cho-Fu-Sa.


Ahhhh, how refreshing, huh? We'll do this again sometime.

And just to lighten up the mood because you know I have a hard time writing a post without cracking some sort of joke about James, well, I jumped on his lap to give him a big kiss tonight, and yeah, he had a huge BOOGER hanging from his nose, and I told him, and he picked it, and it made me gagge, and THAT is why he should be called Boogieface.