Kimchi Lai

            明月几时有?把酒问青天。

            Tonight, the moon is full.

            She smiles at me, her gaze illuminating

            the glass in my hand as if she knows

            I wish it was you I am holding instead.

            不知天上宫阙，今夕是何年。

            I wonder if we have met

            in a different dimension;

            or if we will meet in heaven.

            我欲乘风归去，又恐琼楼玉宇，高处不胜寒。

            I would sit with you

            under an arbour in the gardens. Surrounded

            by pillars cut from the finest

            of jade and sharpest of teeth, protecting

            us from the fierce winds that try

            to blow us apart.

            起舞弄清影，何似在人间?

            But the air is still tonight, and you are not

            by my side in this life. So how dare I wish

            for your presence in another?

            转朱阁，低绮户，照无眠。

            The moon comforts me

            from my window. She is trying

            to coax me into slumber.

            不应有恨，何事长向别时圆?

            “You see”, she whispers to me. “I shine

            brightest in the face of longing.

            What need is there for my light

            if your lover radiates enough warmth?

            What need is there for a full moon

            if you already feel complete?”

            人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全。

            Perhaps I will never see

            your crescent smile, or hear

            your gibbous laugh again.

            Yet I know this: we are under the same sky.

            And now whenever the moon

            waxes or wanes, I will know it is her saying

            that you are thinking of me.

            但愿人长久，千里共婵娟。