Selected Poems of William Marr

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Selected Poems of William Marr
Written and translated by William Marr

“Vietnam Veterans Hospital”

A block of marble
and twenty six letters of the alphabet
etch so many young names
onto history

Wandering alone
amid the mass grave
an old woman has at last found
her only child
and with her eyes tightly shut
her trembling fingers now feel
for the mortal wound
on his ice-cold forehead

Poem in Chinese: 〈越戰紀念碑〉◎非馬


“Eyes”

Lovers’ eyes:
black and beautiful.
November,
Leo’s meteor shower.
-- “Lovers' Eyes” by Ji Xian

last night he wrote on a blank sheet of paper a big big title:
EYES

her eyes
reminded him of those charming eyes
that infatuated so many fair-complexioned young scholars
in ancient bizarre ghost stories

several centuries had since passed
and those enchanting eyes
that should have something to say to him
now just stared at him in a stupor
on the blank sheet

this morning as he was reading
the Collected Best Poems by Ji Xian
it suddenly dawned on him
that those lovers’ eyes
black and beautiful
must have all been gathered
like shells on the beach
by the beauty-loving early-rising poet who lives near the ocean

after passionate and extensive studies
Ji Xian must have obtained a patent on the writing of eyes
with a poem of nine words
and some punctuation marks

Poem in Chinese: 〈眼睛〉◎非馬