Conversation between Heart and Mouth
Thinner the day before yesterday,
even thinner yesterday,
the more I look, the thinner I become.
I sleep in the morning,
sleep in the evening,
too lazy to comb my hair.
Speaking of evening
makes me fear this evening
but now it’s evening again.
I want yet should not think about him;
I want and yet cannot push him from my mind.
With my mouth I ask my heart;
with my heart I ask my mouth.
Anonymous Poetry Collection
by Feng Menglong (1574-1646)
Translated by Tony Barnstone
professor of English at Whittier College
