Everyone wants a piece of me

But Du Fu just wants to chill with the flowers

Uninvited Guests by Edvard Munch

Six Short Poems (2)
Du Fu

Resplendent
In constant motion
are the flowers
are the bees
and the butterflies
with petals
they're a riot
so many

And I
These guests
quietly inhabiting
always arriving
am reluctant to move
always wanting
something
my body

杜甫  绝句六首·其二
蔼蔼花蕊乱，飞飞蜂蝶多。
幽栖身懒动，客至欲如何。

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I’m not sure about this form at all. (1) Does it rely on my reader knowing that they’re reading a translation of something more conventional in form? (2) Does that matter?

In this poem, Du Fu allows the parallelism to break in the second couplet. He’s still clearly playing the same trick: by explicitly mentioning his body, he generates a wry humour in the last line. He only vaguely tells us that the guests want something, but at this point his body pops into our minds, suggesting that the guests want “a piece of me!” (I don’t think there’s any sexual implication here.)

I’m relying on readers to notice the two capital letters at the beginning of each stanza, and that the parallelism requires you to untangle two sentences… I dunno if I’m asking too much of the reader! But this is how the poems refracted through my brain, so I hope you like them.