Eternal love-- I can talk with you in your mother tongue

Churchyard
　　　　─ Kathedrale, Chur

教堂墓園

Who leads me over here
to meet you enjoying the surrounding serenity

Sunshine of early spring and sound of sacred music
are endless fountain sprinkling onto
your catching palm

Eternal love of your parents again
lights two candles
The angels with tender wings on your tombstone
display the words “ RETO 1961-1962 ”
Roses, yellow chrysanthemums and violets
are your companions around you

Ah, your life exists forever
at the age of song and laughter
I can talk with you in your mother tongue
Ah, me too died once
yet unable to join you
in the state of eternal death

— 1967
李魁賢

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Tower
塔

The hour of twilight is coming
The woods cast a vast obscurity of dusk
faraway behind the tower

Your soft hands search for the water source
which is disclosed behind the water mirror
like secluded path of an unpredictable season

Like the tower surrounded by obscurity
an eternal life stands quietly here
as if, ah, eventually from a deep source
the trees lift up toward the evening sky

When the faded sunlight roar away
dusk falls before your feet
Oh, your shadow must grow up
your soft searching hands
must also erect a lonely tower


— 1966
李魁賢