Was familiar with linked verse in Japanese poetry, but not Chinese, so this also opened up a door there.

#LinkedVerse sessions during the time of #Basho were live and impromptu, something of a challenge between masters and pupils/disciples:

"Thus, the linked verse session was a performance of a sort, akin to acting or playing chamber music, except in this instance there was no script or notation to follow. All participants were actors and
audience at the same time and their dialogues ad libitum. And unlike other performing arts, the activities were recorded by a designated person who was versed in the rules and conventions and was qualified to judge."

(Terasaki, Etsuko. “Hatsushigure: A Linked Verse Series by Bashō and His Disciples.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 36 (1976): 204–39. https://doi.org/10.2307/2718744.)

#TodaysPoem is a #LinkedVerse Chinese piece from the Tang dynasty. Full poem in the photo.

"A Garland of Roses"

Like brocade flushed with sunset color,
Following the spring, they open at summer's touch.
(Liu Yu-hsi)
...

Pale or dark in hue, each has perfect shape;
The buds in secret urge each other to blossom.
(Liu Yu-hsi)
...

What to do? the flowers leave me no other plans;
I have only these last few cups of wine.
(Chang Chi)
--------

Chosen at random from the *Anthology of Chinese Literature: From Early Times to the Fourteenth Century*, Grove Press (1965). Random rarely steers me wrong, this was wonderful!

#Poetry