Remembrance by Su Tung-po

From The Spectator, 23 September 1989

Remembrance by Su Tung-po (1036-1101)
translated from the Chinese by Graeme Wilson

Nothing deliberate. Still, ten years should see
The ties of the dead to the living grow less tight.
That lonely grave a thousand miles away.
Who now can talk my chilling worries right?
You wouldn't know me, even if we met,
This face year-dustied and this hair rime-white.

In last night's dream I found myself back home.
Through the small room's window, white, the moonlight shines.
You turn as you comb your hair. You look at me.
Down silent cheeks tears trace their silver lines.
For how many years must my heart continue breaking?
That moonlit grave, its ring of stubby pines.

UPDATE: It occurs to me that there is an echo in the first line of the second stanza to Daphne du Maurier's opening line in Rebecca.

Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again.