Love
People Hide their Love
Translated by Arthur Waley (1918) · From A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918)
Love
Who says
That it’s by my desire,
This separation, this living so far from you?
My dress still smells of the lavender you gave:
My hand still holds the letter that you sent.
Round my waist I wear a double sash:
I dream that it binds us both with a same-heart knot.
Did not you know that people hide their love,
Like a flower that seems too precious to be picked?
Cite this poem
MLA
Liang, Wu-ti of. “People Hide their Love.” Translated by Arthur Waley. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/wu-ti-liang/1/.
Chicago
Liang, Wu-ti of. “People Hide their Love.” Translated by Arthur Waley. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/wu-ti-liang/1/.
Read this poem with the Codex →