You ask me the date of my return—no date has been set.
The night rain over the Pa Mountain swells the autumn pond.
O when shall we together trim the candle by the west window,
And talk about the time when the rain fell on the Pa Mountain?
translated by James J. Y. Liu
Li Shang-yin. Chinese poet
Untitled Poem by Li Shang-yin
It’s so hard to be together, and so hard to part: a tender
east wind is powerless: the hundred blossoms crumble:
the heart-thread doesn’t end until the silkworm’s dead,
and tears don’t dry until the candle’s burnt into ash:
she grieves, seeing white hair in her morning mirror,
and chanting at night, she feels the chill of moonlight:
exquisite Paradise Mountain—it isn’t so very far away,
and that azure bird can show us the way back anytime.
translated by David Hinton
from Peonies by Li Shang-yin
I who was given in a dream the brush of many colours
Wish to write on petals a message to the clouds of morning.
translated by A.C. Graham
Leonard Durso 