Classic and Contemporary Poetry

INVERTED EYELIDS, by IBN HAIYUN
First Line: Is a welling fountain hid
Last Line: Bales the brackish waters out.

Is a welling fountain hid
In your eye's inverted lid,
That your tears, o'erflowing it,
Run cascading through the slit?

It is curved (think I) as if
On the billows rode a skiff,
And the breeze has made it heel
Over almost to the keel.

And the man, its mariner
(So to the pupil we refer)
Fearing he may drown, no doubt,
Bales the brackish waters out.