Short Poems

One thousand six hundred and twenty five
Began the reign of ‘Charles the Martyr’:
In his time parties strongly strive:
Each thinks its cause the country's charter;
In course of time the desperate strife
Cost the monarch his crown and life.

It happed in one thousand six hundred and two
That James the First to kingship rose
A Prince to reformed religion true:
But Raleigh's death his weakness shows.

One thousand five hundred and forty seven
Edward the sixth to the throne was raised:
He went in early youth to Heaven
For piety, zeal and learning praised.

All the days life lasts in the world.
At the Guru's feet fix firm your mind, be not sunk in sloth O Soul.
What trust can one set on this body, it is stream of tainted water.
Born and dissolved in a single moment, what ground for vaunting pride in it?
These are the Creator's doings: do you repeat and learn the Name.
To-day the hour for praise propitious but of to-morrow no one knows.
No man's hand keeps aught within it, and this world is all confusion.
With faith, O Dulam Das, sing praises: this will keep your name alive.

all the bulbs
look somehow crooked—
I plant them in the yard

O, SILLY boy!—such dreams dismiss—
List to my counsel—list—though this
Is counsel hard to bear—
Love's poison is—the bane of bliss—
There's canker in its sweetest kiss,
And paleness and despair.

Wild singing, drunken dancing,
in the blink of an eye, past and present are gone!
White hairs, just a few thin strands on my head;
I have heard each drop of spring rain in Chiang-nan!
Now I've retired to this three-room hut of thatch:
the “flowing waters of peach blossoms” go bubbling by!
Let's not plant any bamboo outside the window:
I want to be able to look out at the western mountains.

T RES tria, sed longe distantia sæcula, vates
Ostentant, tribus e gentibus, eximios.
Græcia sublimem, cum majestate disertum
Roma tulit, felix Anglia utrisque parem.
Partubus ex binis Natura exhausta coacta est,
Tertius ut fieret, consociare duos.

The town fire-watcher in his tower—
rainy nights sometimes
he pees over the side

Laying a fart—
no humor in it
when you live alone.