Long night: unable to sleep
The moon, how beautifully bright.
Calling, someone seems calling.
Into the empty air, I answer “Yes?”
translated by Wai-lim Yip
Tzu Yeh
Song 3 by Tzu-yeh
Nights are long and I cannot sleep
the clear moon so bright and shining.
I think I hear a voice fitfully calling,
and futilely I answer yes to the empty sky.
translated by Burton Watson
Song 2 by Tzu-yeh
In the hottest time, when all is still and windless
and summer clouds rise up at dusk,
under the dense leaves, take my hand
and we’ll float melons on the water, dunk crimson plums.
translated by Burton Watson
Song by Tzu-yeh
Cool breezes–I sleep by the open window
where the light of the setting moon shines in.
At midnight there are no voices,
but within my gauze curtains, a pair of smiles.
translated by Burton Watson
from Five Songs by Tzu Yeh
I am the North Pole
Steady for a thousand years.
Your sun-like heart
Goes East in the morning
And West in the evening.
translated by Kenneth Rexroth & Ling Chung
