Farewell My Concubine

Farewell my concubine

Farewell my concubine 
no longer to be my white-armed Hera 
never again will I run my fingers through 
you’re golden Aphrodite 
Le Femme Fatal, beware the goddess 
who’s bullets aimed true? 
You slant your eyes at me 
and I melt all over you. 
Eclair!  French Amazon! 
Amazonis gaulica! 
Your voice like Monroe on a hot day 
your body like a plentiful earth mother. 

In Black and white 
you came out best 
In purple and red 
I took you to bed 
sweet raptures of snowflakes 
and pine needles stuck in your clothes 
after sex in wild places 
you’d never been before. 

Under willow trees where 
Nymphs play 
I made you mine 
my concubine. 

Your smile was the sweetest 
thing I missed the most. 
But in silver and black 
you won’t come back. 
Because I’ve driven you out of my life. 

I treated you 
the whore 
and came back 
for more 
but always I hid things from you. 

I quelled the friction 
before it sparked fire, 
but still all things must come to pass 
even though I loved your ass. 

I grew up and you 
grew away 
gone off to become 
Queen for the Fairies 
of Disco-Rave. 

I always knew that 
you were a Nymph 
but I never knew 
that you were mine. 

So fare thee well, my concubine 
for that is all that you were 
I treated you the whore 
intellectually a bore 
and now I leave you behind. 
You have your Fairies 
and I have my memories 
as I search on for my 
Athena amour. 

I will not attempt to criticize this poem. I will leave it to you, gentle readers, to decide the value of the poetry. I would, however, like to take minor issue with the author for stealing the title from one of my favorite movies.

Known as Ba wang bie ji in the original Mandarin, this Chinese film from 1993 was directed by Kaige Chen. It was written by Wei Lu and Lillian Lee. Ms. Lee wrote the novel on which the script was based. The stars are Leslie Cheung as Douzi and Fengyi Zhang as Shitou.

They are two orphaned boys who wind up in the Peking Opera. They become stage brothers and very close friends, until the woman in the story comes between them. The homosexual overtones play a very important part in the complexity of the overall plot. It was the best movie I saw that year.

A visually breathtaking film with a marvelous story; it tells you as much about China in the 20th Century as you could hope to learn in 3 hours. I believe the intent of the filmmaker was to show the entire political history of China in that century, and if you can accomplish that and still have a story line that will make you cry, what greater art is there?