Art is a journey into the most unknown thing of all - oneself. Nobody knows his own frontiers… I don’t think I’d ever want to take a road if I knew where it led.

Louis Kahan
    From that day on
I never moved the pieces
on the chessboard.
    Baby mice in their nest
squeak in response
to the young sparrows
    Winter solitude—
in a world of one color
the sound of wind.
    When you hear the splash
Of the water drops that fall
Into the stone bowl,
You will feel that all the dust
Of your mind is washed away.
    On the white poppy,
a butterfly’s torn wing
is a keepsake
    Nothing in the cry
of cicadas suggests they
are about to die
    Bach through an open
  dawn window —
the birds are silent
    

4
Callan las cuerdas.
La música sabía
lo que yo siento.


*


Mute le corde.
La musica sapeva
quello che sento.

*

Silent strings.
Music had known
my feelings.

    

13

Bajo la luna
la sombra que se alarga
es una sola.

*

Under the Moon
an extended, solitary
shadow.

*

Sotto la luna
l’ombra che si allunga
è una sola.