My silks and fine array, My smiles and languish'd air, By love are driv'n away; And mournful lean Despair Brings me yew to deck my grave: Such end true lovers have.
His face is fair as heav'n, When springing buds unfold; O why to him was't giv'n, Whose heart is wintry cold? His breast is love's all worship'd tomb, Where all love's pilgrims come.
Bring me an axe and spade, Bring me a winding sheet; When I my grave have made, Let winds and tempests beat: Then down I'll lie, as cold as clay. True love doth pass away!
In half of the wide courtyard only mosses grow; Peach blossoms all fallen, only rape flowers blow. Where is the Taoist planting peach trees in this place? Only I come again after my new disgrace.
Note: This is the joint translation of Xu Yuanchong and Xu Ming found in the edition of <em>Golden Treasury of Quatrains and Octaves</em> on which they collaborated (i.e. China Publishing Group: Beijing (2008.))
The “new disgrace” referenced was Liu Yuxi’s second exile.
Taiyi stretches toward heaven; Linked mountains reach into the sea. Looking back, white clouds coalesce; In the mist, the mist can't be seen. A ridge is a boundary of worlds: Cloudy or clear; with - or sans - tree. In need of lodging for the night, I ask the woodsman cross river from me.
This is poem #118 of the 300 Tang Poems [唐诗三百首.] The original in Simplified Chinese is:
I asked a thief to steal me a peach: He turn'd up his eyes. I ask'd a lithe lady to lie her down: Holy and meek she cries.
As soon as I went an angel came: He wink'd at the thief And smil'd at the dame, And without one word spoke Had a peach from the tree, And 'twixt earnest and joke Enjoy'd the Lady.
The Props assist the House Until the House is built And then the Props withdraw And adequate, erect, The House support itself And cease to recollect The Augur and the Carpenter – Just such a retrospect Hath the perfected Life – A Past of Plank and Nail And slowness – then the scaffolds drop Affirming it a Soul –
South of Yangtze, stands of red tangerine Can endure winter while remaining green. Is it that the weather there is so warm? No. Their nature 's to bear a winter storm. What might well serve the joyful traveler Will be loathsome peril to passengers. Fate factors in chance and situation -- Not playing around in cyclic rotation. You may cultivate crops however you please, But should heed shade thrown by mountains & trees.
This is the fourth poem in 300 Tang Poems [唐诗三百首] and the final poem of a quartet that opens that collection. The original in Simplified Chinese is:
Romance, who loves to nod and sing, With drowsy head and folded wing, Among the green leaves as they shake Far down within some shadowy lake, To me a painted paroquet Hath been—a most familiar bird— Taught me my alphabet to say— To lisp my very earliest word While in the wild wood I did lie, A child—with a most knowing eye. Of late, eternal Condor years So shake the very Heaven on high With tumult as they thunder by, I have no time for idle cares Through gazing on the unquiet sky. And when an hour with calmer wings Its down upon my spirit flings— That little time with lyre and rhyme To while away—forbidden things! My heart would feel to be a crime Unless it trembled with the strings.
Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet; She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet. She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree; But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.
In a field by the river my love and I did stand, And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand. She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs; But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 