A barge adrift the Perfumed River-
reclining beneath a parasol
is the courtesan Tigress waving her fan
-barge floats past village and pagoda,
houses and huts midst bodhi tree
coconut palm, flame flowers
bamboo forest, and flat green
leaves float in the green river
tangle roots and mangrove.
In the morning she bathed in the river.
Her black lacquer fan:
a butterfly's deep-blue wings
unfold a painting of a courtesan
poised beneath her parasol
keeping the rain off
a barge adrift the Perfumed River.
The woman of the painting on the fan
fanning herself reposing on her divan
rocked by the river's rice green water,
The farmers move water in the fields,
harvest love songs
to give the famous courtesan
who sees them with affection-
now she has her letters to attend,
the afternoon for reading and to practise English.
The rice rivers rock gently her divan.
Below deck is red silk and velvet bed,
a glass case shelving bottles of shampoo
from every country, freshly folded towels-
calendars signed by football stars
grace the chamber's walls
and glowing with river's love
her very odalisqueness-
she can sing the radio love tune
like a goddess, as strong as any warrior
lay serenely the river's quiet, raindrop plash
the same scene painted on her black lacquer fan
as the fan she is painted on-
a courtesan beneath parasol reclining on a barge
rocked by the gentle river.
She sees pirates from the ocean
come up the river in the eyes of business men-
they sing from the banks of the Perfumed River
she is the one the tigers regard and carp swim after ,
her fan unfolds a silvery painting
of a lady with a fan who from her barge
watches farmers work the land.
It is hot and they toil
all morning-buffalo with moon
horns take a bath in mud-she
watches them from her divan-
the farmers and the buffalo-
she lets fall her fan
and painted on it is the picture,
a woman holding a fan
seated pleasingly on a barge
the rain falling harder on her parasol
and the river starting to flow
attending her letters, she will read in the afternoon
and watch on the land the eternity farmers dream-
her fan like a butterfly spreads its wings
to reveal a courtesan who lets fall her fan-
it keeps going, fan after fan a deep-blue butterfly
unfolding the painted scene-on the river a barge
where, shaded by a parasol is the lady
watching the same lovelorn men
harvest rice songs, the fan opens another
and another-fans within fans until the fan
where, in the picture above the courtesan
and the painted scenery
right up in the sky, an old spirit man
rides the clouds in a bathtub,
and plays a harp sparking thunderbolts
-a mischievous being powerful in the hands
of a courtesan-twangs the lightning
as he steps cloud to cloud
painted on the next fan up,
all the way up, up through black lacquered fans
one after another opening,
fans growing as they approach the world
of the lady on her barge on the gently rocked divan.
When he meets her the sky blacks out
he is a cruel storm. Pray Mercy
bless us with goddess tears on the Perfumed
River-hold back your blessed typhoon.
The courtesan snaps shut her fan,
swarms of deep-blue butterflies and black moths
are drawn to her light
the river waves rock gently her divan.
A barge adrift the Perfumed River-
reclining beneath a parasol
is the courtesan Tigress and her fan
-barge floats by village and pagoda,
houses and huts saluted by bodhi tree
coconut palm, flame flowers
bamboo forest, and flat green
leaves float in the green river
tangle roots and mangrove.
In the morning she bathed in the river.