QUATRAIN OF SEVEN STEPS
煮豆燃豆萁，
豆在釜中泣：
本是同根生，
相煎何太急！
Cooking beans over a stalk fire,
beans are weeping in the boiler:
Beans and stalks from one root,
why should we kill each other!
—tr. by Yuemin He
—from Poets Respond
November 7, 2021
__________
Yuemin He: “Overnight this famous Chinese poem has become a web sensation. The business magnet Elon Musk tweeted it and his fans followed, catapulting a poem from 1800 years ago to a new spatial-temporal under the title ‘Humanity.’ Fans are guessing the intent of the tweet, creative folks are writing pastiches, and I translate to wax the table for poetry lovers who relish flavor.”
