Poetry Thursday - reposting "Concrete Poetry"

This post, from 26 June 2011, has accumulated many views over the years, but unfortunately the link to the "translation" no longer exists. Also, the link to "the story" warns that the site contains malware. I have removed both of those links.

However, the link to the poem being stitched on silk is still active, and worth a click and a read. For a start, there's the story of how the poem was written:

蘇蕙 (Su-Hui, 357AD – a tumultous time of the Six Dynasties period), married to a government official, who was subsequently sent to be stationed with his garrison at the northern borders. The lovelorn Su-Hui later found out that her husband had taken a courtesan as mistress, and in a fit of anger, proceeded to beat up the mistress. This estranged the relationship between Su-Hui and her husband, who refused all communication with his wife. 

Crushed, hurt, angered by betrayal; yet with her steadfast love and the pain of separation weighing on, Su-Hui began writing lines of poems and in time, stitched the 8-inch 《璇機圖》 on silk in five different colours, and sent it to her husband. Apparently, the husband, after reading the poem, left the mistress and was reunited with Su-Hui.

Su-Hui wrote nearly 8000 poems, which have been rediscovered in bursts and spurts over the intervening 1700 years.

Concrete poetry?

It almost doesn't need a translation - a visual poem (by (Lady) Su Hui, one of more than 5000 poems she is said to have written). This one, a palindrome, was woven (or stitched on silk) in five colours, if the story is to be believed.

Unfortunately this image of the translation is no longer available as a hi-res jpeg, but you can see how the character for "heart" appears at the centre of the poem - it's said to be a later addition