Red Cockatoo

A semi-epic treat for new readers: 'Cloudland' was published here in August 2010. You can get to it via the search box.

For the old guard here's another Chinese chopstick:

The Red Cockatoo

Sent as a present from Annam -

A red cockatoo.

Coloured like the peach-tree blossom,

Speaking with the speech of men.

And they did to it what is always done

To the learned and the eloquent.

They took a cage with stout bars

And shut it up inside.

Po Chü-I (772-846) trans: A Waley