When did the springwater turn cold?
Whence did the mountain fly?
---By Dong Qichang
Exactly when and where I met your first blossom
then watched your last glimmer sink into sunset
I remember not, I remember not.
Did it happen in that leaf-flaming autumn, or one cicada-singing summer,
or perhaps at the moment when two pairs of eyes struck then quickly evaded?
Did it end wordlessly on that winter night after the dance party
or when my tears drowned the parting song at the train station?
I remember not, I remember not.
I only know you were out of my sight
as I suddenly turned around. I asked myself where I could see you again
fading flowers filling the sky, not a single one telling your direction
I know I’ll never ever again bump into you in my life
afterall who can expect the Yangtze River to turn west
Yet I have no grievances, not a speck of it
Memories always tiptoe into my mind
like the endless rain threads in wind
connecting you and me two decades apart on opposite sides of the river
in its surging tides shine all the precious jewels of golden youth
and I treasure them all, I treasure them all.