Green water reflects scales of bright red;
Weeds and algae appear as clear as in a mirror.
When the fisherman rapped on his boat,
I thought it was petals falling.
translated by Yin-nan Chang
Chinese poet
Ancient Sentiments by Wu Wei-yeh
My love is like the silk on the loom,
To be woven into a Tree of Longing.
I’m like the blossoms on your cloth coat
Which no spring wind can deflower.
translated by Irving Lo
from Chen-chou Quatrains by Wang Shih-chen: No. 1
At dawn I climb a river tower to its very highest storey,
The gentle and delicate look of departing sail is hard to bear.
The tide stretches a thousand yards below White Sands Pavilion;
Sending a homesick heart all the way back to Mo-ling.
translated by David Bryant
Chatting about the Past with the Elder (Ching-jen) by Hung Liang-chi
All ambitions of youth yield place to calamities;
Parted as in a dream–reunited, we can’t trust our eyes.
Shall we match our strength in climbing one more mountain?
Winning fame in literature, there’s you alone.
In a sea of dust, we still can tarry for a little while;
Or sit in a granary of books, all day, without food.
This morning I took myself to Yen Pavilion for a look,
Trying to find the leanest horse to ride down the capital street.
translated by Irving Lo
from The Girl in Memory by Yang Lian
Names spread in all directions like a breeze
That starts with you yet also dreams beyond your breath
And is forgotten not far away beneath the ground
Or even very far away walks into the room that yearns for you
Even though you have never entered it
translated by Fang Dai, Dennis Ding, & Edward Morin
Late Spring Improvisation by Yu Xuanji
Very few visitors or lovers
come through this alley to this hidden door
and as for someone I can really cherish
I meet him only in dreams
perfumed gauze and damask–
whose empty seat at the banquet?
songs carried on the wind–
coming from what pavilion?
around here it’s mostly army drums
disrupting morning sleep
nothing but magpies in the courtyard
clattering through spring sorrow
how could I hope to have any part
in the world of grand events
my own life at such a distance
and no place to tie up my boat?
translated by David Yooung & Jiann I. Lin
Saying Goodbye by Yu Xuanji
Several nights in this gorgeous pavilion
and I began to have expectations
until my darling surprised me
he had to be off on a journey
so I sleep alone and don’t discuss
the whereabouts of clouds
around the lamp, now almost spent,
one lost moth is circling.
translated by David Young & Jiann I. Lin
TheYinwu Pavilion by Yu Xuanji
Blossoms of spring, the autumn moon–
you have to turn them into poems
the bright days, the clear nights–
you feel surrounded by floating gods
I rolled up the curtain idly
and never rolled it back
I moved my couch to face the mountains
and slept here from then on.
translated by David Young & Jiann I. Lin
At the Pavilion on Grand-View Mountain, Sent to Chang Tzu-jung at Flourish Ridge by Meng Hao-jan
On the summit, sudden winds wild,
a cloud sails by like a startled bird.
Standing at the guardrail, I wonder:
is it old Chang coming back home?
translated by David Hinton
After Chang Yüan’s Clear Mirror Lament by Meng Hao-jan
This mirror of mine all coiled dragons:
its clarity was pure radiance every day,
then gathering the dust of this world
it soon blurred to a moon adrift in mist.
When grief comes, I look to that light,
but find only white hair and lament
and you in borderland distances. Tell me,
How could farewell go so long and far?
translated by David Hinton
Leonard Durso 