Bo Juyi, On Hearing Someone Sing a Poem by Yuan Zhen
No new poems his brush will trace;
Even his fame is dead.
His old poems are deep in dust
At the bottom of boxes and cupboards.
Once lately, when someone was singing,
Suddenly I heard a verse–
Before I had time to catch the words
A pain had stabbed my heart.
—translated by Arthur Waley
Title from Jack Kerouac, #19
