World Poetry Day – Featured Poem: The Valley Wind by Lu Yün (BSL)

Held every year on 21 March, World Poetry Day celebrates one of humanity’s most treasured forms of cultural and linguistic expression and identity. Practiced throughout history – in every culture and on every continent – poetry speaks to our common humanity and our shared values, transforming the simplest of poems into a powerful catalyst for dialogue and peace.

For a number of years, The Reader ran a Shared Reading group at the John Denmark Unit, which offers special mental health services to adult deaf people in Greater Manchester. Once a month, our Featured Poem will be taken from the list of those read at the John Denmark Unit and interpreted for BSL users by Tony Redshaw.

Today's Featured Poem is 'The Valley Wind' by Lu Yün, read by Mary Crotty. This poem is taken from One Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems by Arthur Waley.

The Valley Wind 

Living in retirement beyond the world
Silently enjoying isolation
I pull the rope of my door tighter
And stuff my window with roots and ferns.

My spirit is tuned to the spring season
At the fall of the year there is autumn in my heart
Thus imitating cosmic changes
My cottage becomes a universe.

By Lu Yün