Before dusk on the lake, the moon just full,
The fisherman from Pa-ling chants incessantly his boatman’s songs.
Fishing gear,
A boat with an up-turned bow,
To be happy in wind and waves one need not be a saint.
translated by Hellmut Wilhelm
poetry
Looking in the Mirror the Day Before the Advent of Autumn by Li Yi
Everything fades away beyond oneself.
Life is all here in the mirror:
Just that my temples are covered with snow,
With which to front the autumn winds tomorrow.
translated by William H. Nienhauser
from Expressing My Feelings by Meng Chiao
A single spirit lies at the root of all things–
How can they then destroy one another?
translated by Stephen Owen
The Crow Cries At Night by Po Chü-yi
Late, when it returns from the city wall;
Perilous, where it perches for the night in a courtyard–
The moon brightens a leafless tree,
Frost makes slippery the windy branches.
Crying hoarse, its throat is parched;
Flying low, its frozen wings droop.
The parrots in the painted hall
Do not know cold from warmth.
translated by Irving Y. Lo
Flower Unlike Flower by Po Chü-yi
A flower, and yet not a flower
Of mist, and yet not of mist
At midnight she comes
And at daybreak, leaves.
She comes like a spring dream, for how long?
She goes like morning dew, without a trace.
translated by Eugene Eoyang
An Occasional Poem by Ssu-k’ung T’u
A hall by the water where the flowers grow dense,
A sunny day in spring just before noon–
A bird peeps at the window facing the rail,
A horse passes by–the crack of a whip beyond the wall.
translated by Irving Y. Lo
anonymous Chinese poet 3rd Century B.C.
Going on aways on and on
alive, but parted from you
gone ten thousand miles and more
each to a far edge of the sky
translated by Charles Hartman
Recruiting Officer of Shih-hao by Tu Fu
At dusk I sought lodging at Shih-hao village,
When a recruiting officer came to seize men at night.
An old man scaled the wall and fled,
His old wife came out to answer the door.
How furious was the officer’s shout!
How pitiable was the woman’s cry!
I listened as she stepped forward to speak:
“All my three sons have left for garrison duty at Yeh;
From one of them a letter just arrived,
Saying my two sons had newly died in battle.
Survivors can manage to live on,
But the dead are gone forever.
Now there’s no other man in the house,
Only a grandchild at his mother’s breast.
THe child’s mother has gone away;
She has only a tattered skirt to wear.
An old woman I am feeble and weak,
But I will gladly leave with you tonight
To answer the urgent call at Ho-yang–
I can still cook morning gruel for your men.”
The night drew on, but talking stopped;
It seemed I heard only half-concealed sobs.
As I got back on the road at daybreak,
Only the old man was there to see me off.
translated by Irving Y. Lo
I Pass The Night At General Headquarters by Tu Fu
A clear night in harvest time.
In the courtyard at headquarters
The wu-tung tree grows cold.
In the city by the river
I wake alone by a guttering
Candle. All night long bugle
Calls disturb my thoughts. The splendor
Of the moonlight floods the sky.
Who bothers to look at it?
Whirlwinds of dust, I cannot write.
The frontier pass is unguarded.
It is dangerous to travel.
Ten years wandering, sick at heart.
I perch here like a bird on a
Twig, thankful for a moment’s peace.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
Night in the House by the River by Tu Fu
It is late in the year;
Yin and Yang struggle
In the brief sunlight.
On the desert mountains
Frost and snow
Gleam in the freezing night.
Past midnight,
Drums and bugles ring out,
Violent, cutting the heart.
Over the Triple Gorge the Milky Way
Pulsates between the stars.
The bitter cries of thousands of households
Can be heard above the noise of battle.
Everywhere the workers sing wild songs.
The great heroes and generals of old time
Are yellow dust forever now.
Such are the affairs of men.
Poetry and letters
Persist in silence and solitude.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth
Leonard Durso 