Three Horses Drink Water at the Riverbank
By Chi Lechuan
Translated By Wang Ping
Translated from the Chinese
One white, one red, one black
Three horses are drinking at the riverbank
They drink at their own pace, some up
Some down
Sometimes their heads reach the river
At the same time
As if a river were flowing
Out of their mouths
As their minds flow from the river source
Still innocent, clear, undisturbed
The sun is setting slowly
A man watches, without blinking
How a river disappears into the night
Held in the mouths of three horses
Notes:
This poem is part of the portfolio “Wind Crossing Grasses: Poems from Poems from China’s Dragon Rivers.” The folio is an excerpt from the forthcoming anthology of the same name, translated and edited by Wang Ping, with a co-introduction from Gary Snyder (Kinship Poetry Press, 2026). You can read the rest of the folio in the July/August 2025 issue.
Source: Poetry (July/August 2025)