BAKINGS

Picknicking : Alan Price

 

At sunset you push the boat out

as a soft breeze creates easy ripples,

in a picnic spot hidden by bamboo,

lotus cool lovely by evening.

Some horny guys prepare iced drinks.

Attractive dolls sprinkle and arrange salad.

Then a tiny dark cloud appears.

Have I time to finish this poem before it rains?

It’s pouring down now, drenching everyone.

What a wind beating at the boat side!

ThreeYüeh dolls. Wet and clingy scarlet dresses.

Whilst the girls, from Yen, suffer crying mascara.

A painter guy scrapes the boat against the bank.

Curtains are blown open. Flowers shot onto the river.

Getting home’s such a battle through a storm.

On shore, this June collapses into autumn.

A version after Du Fu’s 陪諸貴公子丈八溝攜妓納涼,晚際遇雨二首》杜甫