Time and Eternity
Yu Guanzhong

I don’t know if time is flame or flow,
I only know through the fingers tis drip
Leaves a hand dry and hollow,
Too feeble a fist for a grip.
I only know how often it singes
A brow, how often youthful passion
Leaves a heart scorched with longing
And burned down to a heap of ash
That a new phoenix may break its way
Out, its trembling wings freedom-bound.
Unknown if eternity is fire or flood
Or neither burns up nor whirls around.