Here on the summit of Fan-k’o Mountain, it’s Tu Fu
under a midday sun sporting his huge farmer’s hat.
How is it you’ve gotten so thin since we parted?
Must be all those poems you’ve been suffering over.
translated by David Hinton
Li Po
To Send Far Away by Li Po
So much beauty home–flowers filled the house.
So much beauty gone–nothing but this empty bed,
your embroidered quilt rolled up, never used.
It’s been three years. Your scent still lingers,
your scent gone and yet never ending.
But now you’re gone, never to return,
thoughts of you yellow leaves falling,
white dew glistening on green moss.
translated by Daviid Hinton
Avoiding Farewell in a Chin-ling Wineshop by Li Po
Breezes filling the inn with willow-blossom scents,
elegant girls serve wine, enticing us to try it.
Chin-ling friends come to see me off, I try to leave
but cannot, so we linger out another cup together.
I can’t tell anymore. Which is long and which short,
the river flowing east or thoughts farewell brings on?
translated by David Hinton
Goodbye At The River by Li Po
In this little river town
the autumn rain lets up
the wine’s all gone
well then, goodbye!
you stretch out in your boat
the sail fills, you skim home
past islands burning with flowers
banks crowded with willows
what about me? I don’t know
I think I’ll go sit
on that big rock
and fish
translated by David Young
Conversation Among Mountains by Li Po
You ask why I live
in these green mountains
I smile
can’t answer
I am completely at peace
a peach blossom
sails past
on the current
there are worlds
beyond this one
translated by David Young
To See Meng Hao-jan Off to Yang-chou by Li Po
My old friend takes off from the Yellow Crane Tower,
In smoke-flower third month down to Yangchou.
A lone sail, a distant shade, lost in the blue horizon.
Only the long Yangtze is seen flowing into the sky.
translated by Wai-lim Yip
Hearing the Flute in the City of Loyang in a Spring Night by Li Po
Whose jade-flute is this, notes flying invisibly
Scatter into spring winds, filling City of Loyang?
Hearing the “Break-a-Willow-Twig” tonight,
Who can withhold the surge of thoughts of home?
ytranslated by Wai-lim Yip
from The Hard Road by Li Po
I would cross the Yellow River, but ice chokes the ferry;
I would climb the T’ai-hang Mountain, but the sky is blind with snow. . .
I would sit and poise a fishing-pole, lazy by a brook–
But I suddely dream of riding a boat, sailing for the sun. . .
Journeying is hard,
Journeying is hard.
There are many turnings–
Which am I to follow?. . .
I will mount a long wind some day and break the heavy waves
And set my cloudy sail straight and bridge the deep, deep sea.
translated by Witter Bynner & Kiang Kang-hu
Presented to Wang Lun by Li Po
Li Po on board, ready to push off,
suddenly heard the tramping and singing on the bank.
Peach Flower Pool a thousand feet deep
is shallower than the love of Wang Lun who sees me off.
translated by Burton Watson
Thinking of East Mountain by Li Po
It’s been so long since I headed for East Mountain—
how many times have the roses bloomed?
White clouds have scattered themselves away—
and this bright moon—whose house is it setting on?
translated by Burton Watson
Leonard Durso 