To the Oak Tree

If I love you -
I never behave like a climbing trumpet vine
Using your high branches to show off;
If I love you -
I never mimic infatuated little birds
Repeating monotonous songs into the shadows,
Nor do I look at all like  wellspring
Sending out its cooling consolation all year round,
Or just another perilous crag
Augmenting your height, setting off your prestige.
Nor like the sunlight
Or even spring rain.
No, these are not enough.
I would be a kapok tree by your side
Standing with you – both of us shaped like trees.
Our roots hold hands underground,
Our leaves touch in the clouds.
As a gust of wind passes by
We salute each other
And not a soul
Understands our language.
You have your bronze boughs and iron trunk
Like knives and swords,
Also like halberds;
I have my red flowers
Like heavy sighs,
Also like heroic torches.
We hare cold waves, storms and thunderbolts;
Together we savor fog, haze and rainbows.
We seem to always live apart,
But actually depend upon each other forever.
This has to be called extraordinary love.
Faith resides in it:
Love -
I love not only your sublime body
But the space you occupy
The land beneath your feet.

by Shu Ting
March 27, 1977
Poetry Magazine (Shikan), no. 5 (May 1982)

The above poem is from The Red Azalea: Chinese Poetry since the Cultural Revolution, available in Stevie’s book section. This poem hast to be one of the most beautiful poems I’ve come across in a while. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been reading poetry for too long; a cluttered head does not know the grass, the ocean, the land beneath the feet. Or maybe I like the outburst of romance and nature, undifferentiated. These are the best lines for me:

I have my red flowers
Like heavy sighs,
Also like heroic torches.

It’s like looking and seeing.

The three ships-in-the-bottle we have in Stevie… do you like them as much as I do? I don’t know who will want to buy them, but I keep looking out for them. Everywhere!

Above is a small ceramic wall vase of a pair of deers, and a ‘secret’ drawer made out of a tree stump…
Below is a really old deep trinket case that springs open when you unclasp it, and a sprightly Old Spice Brilliantine glass container.

You can’t really tell from the photo but this curio cupboard is a lovely small size, well, the width of two bedside clocks, and the old wooden trinket case below is smaller than your palm.

I love not only your sublime body
But the space you occupy
The land beneath your feet.