My nephew teaches Chinese and Spanish.  Yes, he’s very smart.  Anyway, I also consider him a friend, and we have begun, by baby steps, a translation project.  He tells me what the words in a Chinese poem mean, and I write a version of the poem inspired by his translation.  This is the first one.  It’s based on what he calls “a very famous Chinese poem.”

Chinese Goose

Gander goose, stretch

your neck to heaven,

sing.

Float your white feathers

on a teal green

lake.

Make your red webs trouble

clear turquoise ripples

across the light on which

you ride.

Short entry today.   This is the first Chinese poem translation-of-a-sort I’ve done.  I have two more I’m working on.  They are considerably harder.