“The lingering clouds, rolling, rolling,
And the settled rain, dripping, dripping,
In the Eight Directions—the same dusk.
The level lands—one great river.
Wine I have, wine I have:
Idly I drink at the eastern window.
Longingly—I think of my friends,
But neither boat nor carriage comes.”
Flood ~ Björn Rudberg
Beneath cloud shadows tumbling
curtains of drizzle are sprinkling.
A world veiled — in unison gloom,
Horizon stays wide — one river alone
A frosted glass in my hand,
raised to welcome the dawn.
I wait for a knock on my door,
but pandemic still keeps us apart.
John Constable
Laura inspires us with classic Chinese poetry today at dVerse and asks us to interpret the original Chinese Poems without using the words. The titles should be the same. My choice was the poem Flood by Tao Chien, and to me the waiting for friends made me think about the year we are still spending alone, waiting for the social distancing to diminish.
April 20, 2021
Björn Rudbergs writings 
This is exquisitely woven, Bjorn! I love the contrasts between “But neither boat nor carriage comes,” and “but pandemic still keeps us apart.” It’s beautiful, brilliant and very moving! 💝💝
A stunning interpretation, Björn, and I love the frosted glass ‘raised to welcome the dawn’ and the contemporary ending.
to welcome the dawn was instead of the eastern window.
the parallels are clearly there and I particularly like the way you mirrored the feelings and imagery so closely
Bjorn- this is brilliant.
I like how you’ve mirrored the lines and the language of the original, but made it your own. And of course the pandemic reference adds a modern twist to which we can all relate!
I like how you changed the original lines to:
“A frosted glass in my hand,
raised to welcome the dawn.”
To me that is a person grateful to still be alive in this pandemic.
Very smoothly transitioned!
I like the contemporary references. This line especially:
A world veiled — in unison gloom
Oh well done, Björn! Measure for measure you make Tao Chien’s footsteps your own. Brilliant.🌟
“A world veiled — in unison gloom” I’m feeling it! I felt the pandemic in the prompt poem as well.
A very nice reinterpretation. I love how relevant the ending makes it.
Oh, you have captured the loneliness of waiting. Hopefully, soon visitors will come and you can share some wine.
What a good poem to choose for such a time as we are living in! Well done!
You and I chose the same poem and had similar thought, but then diverged paths. Your interpretation was brilliantly done. I love the visual of the raised glass to the dawn.
Björn, unsurprisingly brilliant.
❤
David
Really atmospheric – shadows, veiled, frosted, curtains. Chilling and sombre and beautiful.
Your connection with the longing in the original seems to make a stronger impression – intensely personal – as well as linking it to our current situation with COVID. Excellent.