When Night Comes

Li Ching ChaoLi Ching Chao

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To the tune of "Telling My Most Intimate Feelings"When night comes,
I am so flushed with wine,
I undo my hair slowly:
a plum calyx is
stuck on a damaged branch.
I wake dazed when smoke
breaks my spring sleep.
The dream distant,
so very distant;
and it is quiet, so very quiet.
The moon spins and spins.
The kingfisher blinds are drawn;
and yet I rub the injured bud,
and yet I twist in my fingers this fragrance,
and yet I possess these moments of time!
Li Ching Chao
About the poet

Li Ching Chao

1084 - 1151/ChinaLi Ch'ing Chao was born into a literary family and became an antiquarian, book collector, and calligrapher. Of her six original volumes of lyrics, only about 50 lyrics remain. In Stephen Owen's chapter, "The Snares of Memory," it concentrates…

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