Ho Xuan Huong

Peekaboo we used to play;my hands covered my face,your hands covered your face,incredible, there we were gone
That is what we play now, yourhands on my face and my handson your eyes
Incrediblehow we disappear into each other

Praise whoever raised these polesfor some to swing while others watch
A boy pumps, then arcs his back
The shapely girl shoves up her hips
Four pink trousers flapping hard,two pairs of legs stretched side by side

If you want to pick flowers, you have to hike
Climbing up, don't worry about your weary bones
Pluck the low branches, pull down the high
Enjoy alike the spent blossoms, the tight buds

Screw the fate that makes you share a man
One cuddles under cotton blankets; the other's cold
Every now and then, well, maybe or maybe not,once or twice a month, oh, it's like nothing
You try to stick to it like a fly on ricebut the...

A gentle spring evening arrivesairily, unclouded by worldly dust
Three times the bell tolls echoes like a wave
We see heaven upside-down in sad puddles
Love's vast sea cannot be emptied

Not a drop of rain for this dry heat
Come, girls, let's go bail water
Let's drag our delta-shaped buckets to that huge square field where our bodies can pulse to the water's lapping
Crouched, straining to catch each trickle from the...

Are you seventeen or eighteen
(1)Let me cherish you by all means
Thin or thick you display a triangle,
Large or small I hold you with one hand