Before Me, An Arctic Fox (By Luo Ying)

Lovely snow-white vixen hunches before my feet, looking up We are gulping down drinks and seal meat, she only grins She bewitches like the daughter of Yang Guifei As if descended from a different plane, marmoreal white Beauty taken at its height is pure and tantalizing I imagine apple blossoms in her world of snow The petals are her bed, and spun ice is her gown Her lithe walk can set the whole world swaying No living things can catch the meaning of her faint gentle yelp At death's door bearing great pain she summons up a smile Who killed whom thereby slips the grasp of sad philosophizing The long night's wind stirs her outer fur and ear-tips She stiffens slowly, to keep from frightening fish under the ice I take her picture, catch a gleam from mournful eyes In truth, that is a look reserved for angels Tr. by Denis Mair