We might have gone a lifetime without meeting, | Copyright Kalany 2024

Displaced from each other like stars of morning and evening․ | Originally hosted on kalany.org

Tonight we overlap․ When will it happen again? | For reprint and reproduction licensing

Lamp and candle together shine brightly․ | contact Kalany via email: translation

How long has it been since we were young and strong? | at kalany.org

All the hair at our temples is grey․

You half acted like a ghost had come to the door․

We shouted as heartbreak burned our chests․

How could we know it would be twenty years

Until we'd be in the noble hall again?

You've changed—you had no wife,

Just setting out with the woman you loved,

Going to seek her father's approval․

You asked me when I could join you․

We trade questions that have yet to run out,

And you hurry to strain another jug of wine․

As the nightly rain falls, you clip the chives

And cook them with yellow sorghum․

You have the difficult skill to cook them soft,

And there's wine enough for ten feasts․

Ten feasts of wine wouldn't satisfy me․

My emotions want my old friend forever․

Tomorrow, this hill must detach from its peak,

Two separated lifetimes stretching hazy and long․