"Married Love"

You and I
Have so much love,
That it
Burns like a fire
In which we bake a lump of clay
Molded into a figure of you
And a figure of me.
Then we take both of them,
And break them into pieces,
And mix the pieces with water,
And mold again a figure of you,
And a figure of me.
I am in your clay.
You are in my clay.
In life we share a single quilt.
In death we will share one coffin.

By: Lady Guan Daosheng (1262-1319), written to her husband.
Translated by: Rexroth & Chung