Huang Zunxian (1848-1905) was a Chinese official, scholar and writer active during the late Qing dynasty, the last imperial dynasty. As a poet, he published more than a hundred poems.

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To send away melancholy

Huang Zunxian

Flowers bloom, flowers fall,

            I bolt my gate and sleep.

Wasting fine spring days?

            How could I help it?

Affairs of this world

            seldom turn out as we wish;

People before my eyes

            die off more and more each day.

The patterings of evening rain

            a rustling tune

Of flowing, fleeting time

            an immortal treads and sings.

This day, this hour,

            and there’s this ‘I’;

Tea mists, a meditation couch,

            and a sick Vimalakirti.*

Translated by An-Yan Tang

*Third World Resurgence No. 305/306, January/February 2016, p 64