MARRIED LOVE
You and I
have so much love
that it burns like fire,
in which we bake a lump of clay
to mold a figure of you
and a figure of me.
In a moment of passion,
we break the images to pieces,
and mix them in water,
knead and mold again
an image of you
and another of me.
Now I am in your clay
and you are in my clay.
In life we share a single quilt.
In death we’ll share one coffin.
Kuan Tao-shêng (1262-1319))
Kenneth Rexroth & Ling Chung (Ed. & trans.)
The Orchid Boat: Women Poets of China (1972)
