There’s frost on the reeds tonight in this riverine world
the mountains look dreary in the cold moonlight
who says the miles between us begin this very night
my goodbye dream goes with you beyond the farthest passes
translated by Red Pine
Hsüeh T’ao
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
Willow Catkins by Hsueh T’ao
Flowers of the willow, light, fluffy by the second moon,
Sway wildly in spring breezes, tugging sleeves of passers-by.
They are by nature heartless things indeed,
Who just gave them to fly north and fly south.
translated by Eric W. Johnson
The Moon by Hsüeh T’ao
The crescent, tiny as the curtain hook;
The fan, woven on the Han loom, is round.
The slender image, its nature, to gain fullness–
Where else on earth is this seen?
translated by Eric W. Johnson
Autumn Spring by Hsüeh T’ao
The cold hue newly clears, a belt of haze;
The mysterious sound gurgles afar, the ten-stringed lute.
Endlessly to my pillow they come, to draw thoughts of love,
Not letting this pensive soul half the night to sleep.
translated by Eric W. Johnson
Autumn Spring by Hsüeh T’ao
The cold hue newly clears, a belt of haze;
The mysterious sound gurgles afar, the ten-stringed lute.
Endlessly to my pillow they come, to draw thoughts of love,
Not letting this pensive soul half the night to sleep.
translated by Eric W. Johnson
Farewell to a Friend by Hsüeh T’ao
The water country’s reeds and rushes, night, covered with frost;
The moon’s coldness, the mountains’ cast share a bleak, pale blue.
Who can say, from this night on, a thousand li away,
My dreams of you, dim as the distant frontier?
translated by Eric W. Johnson
Farewell to a Friend by Hsüeh T’ao
The water country’s reeds and rushes, night, covered with frost;
The moon’s coldness, the mountains’ cast share a bleak, pale blue.
Who can say, from this night on, a thousand li away,
My dreams of you, dim as the distant frontier?
translated by Eric W. Johnson
Leonard Durso 