A Glance
translated by

after Rembrandt’s Young Woman at an Open Half-Door (1645)
Beautiful are the shoulders sinking into the shadows
locking her chest, rich as an orchard. Only her radiant
face, a dream, suddenly appearing, corresponds
to the slim fingers that rest on the low threshold door.
In the trees of hours, river clock carries away another leaf.
From her eyes, half-lowered, mysterious, flows out
a tranquility that blinds. Her eternal calm faces a hurried
but limited life when in an evening, by chance, she casts a glance
that lasts at this ever-changing world.
Translation from the Chinese