Distant clouds, trees deep into mist,
autumn bathed in a river’s clarity.
Where is she tonight, so beautiful?
Moonlight floods the mountaintops.
translated by David Hinton
Tu Mu
The River Han by Tu Mu
Rich and full, all surging swells and white gulls in flight,
it flows springtime deep, its green a crystalline dye for robes.
Going south and coming back north, you grow older, older.
Late light lingers, farewell to a fishing boat bound for home.
translated by David Hinton
A Night at a Tavern by Tu Mu
Solitary at a tavern,
I am shut in with loneliness and grief.
Under the cold lamp, I brood on the past;
I am kept awake by a lost wildgoose.
. . .Roused at dawn from a misty dream,
I read, a year later, news from home—
And I remember the moon like smoke on the river
And a fisher-boat moored there, under my door.
translated by Witter Bynner & Kiang Kang-hu
from Parting, Section 2 by Tu Mu
How can a deep love seem deep love,
How can it smile, at a farewell feast?
Even the candle, feeling our sadness,
Weeps, as we do, all night long.
translated by Witter Bynner & Kiang Kang-hu
The Garden of the Golden Valley by Tu Mu
Stories of passions make sweet dust,
Calm water, grasses unconcerned.
At sunset, when birds cry in the wind,
Petals are falling like a girl’s robe long ago.
translated by Witter Bynner & Kiang Kang-hu
In The Autumn Night by Tu Mu
Her candle-light is silvery on her chill bright screen.
Her little silk fan is for fireflies. . .
She lies watching her staircase cold in the moon,
And two stars parted by the River of Heaven.
translated by Witter Bynner & Kiang Kang-hu
Leonard Durso 