K’uei-chou by Tu Fu

Above K’uei-chou’s wall, a cloud-form village. Below:
wind-tossed sheets of falling rain, a swollen river

Thrashing in the gorge. Thunder and lightning battle.
Kingfisher-gray trees and ashen ivy shroud sun and moon.

War horses can’t compare to those back in quiet pastures.
But of a thousand homes, a bare hundred remain. Ai–

Ai–the widow beaten by life’s toll, grief-torn,
Sobbing in what village where on the autumn plain?

translated by DAvid Hinton

The Autumn Brook by Hsüeh T’ao

It has turned crystal clear lately
And flows away like a ribbon of smoke
With a music like a ten strınged zither.
The sound penetrates to my pillow,
And turns my mind to past loves,
And won’t let me sleep for melancholy.

translated by Kenneth Rexroth & Ling Chung

Outside My Office, Wandering In Moonlight by Wei Ying-wu

Outside this office, night such luminous depths,
the lovely moon’s a delight wandering with me.

Descending across the river, it comes halfway
adrift on dew-tinged air, then suddenly startles

autumn, scattering color through open forests,
scrawling its disk on the current’s utter clarity.

And reaching mind, it bestows boundless light
all silver-pure azure eluding us to perfection.

translated by David Hinton

Cold Food Day: To My Cousins by Wei Ying-wu

The fire ban darkens an auspicious day
I still feel the pain of our parting
seeing these flower-covered fields
reminds me of the trails of Tuling
when will we ride together again
I’m feeling much older today

translated by Red Pine

NOTE: Cold Food Day occurred 150 days after Winter Solstice (late spring). This is in the commentary by Red Pine.