I drag my heavy heart
up to these dazzling heights:
this beautiful, beautiful sunset!
And then the onrushing night.
translated by Sam Hamill
Li Shang-Yin
quote from Li Shang-yin
Literature endures like the universal spirit,
And its breath becomes a part of the vitals of all men.
translated by Witter Bynner & Kiang Kang-hu
Night Rains: to my Wife up North by Li Shang-yin
You ask how long before I come. Still no date set.
The night rains on Mount Pa swell the autumn pool.
When shall we, side by side, trim a candle at the West Window,
And talk back to the time of the night rains on Mount Pa?
translated by A.C. Graham
another untitled poem by Li Shang-yin
For ever hard to meet, and as hard to part.
Each flower spoils in the failing East wind.
Spring’s silkworms wind till death their heart’s threads:
The wick of the candle turns to ash before its tears dry.
Morning’s mirror’s only care, a change at her cloudy temples:
Saying over a poem in the night, does she sense the chill in the moonbeams?
Not far, from here to Fairy Hill.
Bluebird, be quick now, spy me out the road.
translated by A.C. Graham
from Untitled Love Poem II by Li Shang-yin
hearts shouldn’t try to be flowers
that just keep opening up
for every inch of longing
they make an inch of ashes.
translated by David Young
Boudoir Feelings by Li Shang-yin
Red dew on floral chamber, white honeycomb–
Yellow bee and purple butterfly, both in disarray,
At spring’s casement, awakened from a dream of love:
They share the same bed, and do not know it.
translated by Eugene Eoyang & Irving Y. Lo
About Geese by Li Shang-yin
Asleep on the sand, dozing on the water, they form a flock.
Jagged shoreline, fading light, clouds over distant bank.
They don’t know in their heart the plight of the peacock:
The female fettered, forever apart from the male
translated by Eugene Eoyang & Irving Y. Lo
A Riddle and a Gift by Li Shang-yin
A brocade curtain parts: there’s
the legendary beauty, Madam Wei!
embroided quilts, meantime,
still cloak the boatman’s shoulders. . .
or think of the slow dance, Hanging Hands,
and carved jade dangling from a sash
and the fast dance, Bending Waist,
with a fluttering saffron skirt!
colors flaring from candles
a rich man never thinks to trim
and fragrance like that of the holy man
who needed no incense or perfume. . .
I dreamed I was that poor poet
who got hold of a genius’s brush:
wanting to create such leaves, such blooms,
that I could send to you
my lady of dawn clouds,
my peony.
translated by David Young
Night Rain, Sent North by Li Shang-yin
You ask when I’ll return but when doesn’t have a date
the rain tonight in the hills of Pa floods the autumn lakes
when will we trim candlewicks by the west window again
and talk about when it rained in the hills of Pa this night
translated by Red Pine
First Month: at Ch’ung-jang House by Li Shang-yin
Secret behind locks and double bars, covered with green moss.
In the deepest corridors, innermost chambers, pacing to and fro.
A presage that the wind will rise–the halo round the moon.
The season of cold dews still, the buds unopened.
A bar sweeps past the flap of the blind. Endless tossing and turning.
A mouse unsettles the cobweb on the window, startles with brief suspicions.
With the lamp at my back I talk alone to a fragrance still in the air,
And unawares, just as before, sing Rise in the Night and Come.
translated by A.C. Graham
Leonard Durso 