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The Fisherman's Pride
(Dream Notes)

Dreamed between 1129 & 1151 by Li Qingzhao


The clouds, like waves
across the sky, join
with the morning fog.

The River of Stars turns
and a thousand sails dance.

In a dream, my soul stands before the Emperor of Heaven,
who kindly asks
where I will go.

My journey is long, I say,
and the sun setting.
I have studied poetry
and attempted startling phrases
to no use.

Let the roc raise a wind
of ninety thousand li.

Wind, move again.
Blow my boat
to the islands of immortals.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

The poet Du Fu wrote "if my words are not startling, I would rather die than rest".

SOURCE: The Magpie at Night: the complete poems of Li Qingzhao (1084-1151), translated by Wendy Chen, 2025; p. 89

EDITOR'S NOTE

Li Qingzhao's judging her poems as failures next to Du Fu's. And she has nothing else; she's an exile, home gone, husband dead, country carved up between northern barbarians and an emperor unwilling to fight them. She's had it with this world. She asks simply... not to return.

As a writer in Trump's America, I know the feeling.

--Chris Wayan


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