A Poem of the Middle-Aged

by Wu Xiangyang
     trs. by Fan Jinghua

To introduce the lips to a wine glass by way of a glass of wine,
This is to introduce a middle-aged to an eighteen-year-old by way
of a diesel train,
Or introduce one’s hometown to a map.
A middle-aged person can no longer hold a wasp waist.

The wind and the moon become too light, the country too far
away,
And now drinking may be easy, but how can the aged liquor
Live up to
The fine-featured old days?