At the cliff’s edge, frail clouds stay
All night. Among waves, a lone, shuddering
Moon. As cranes trail off in flight, silent,
Wolves snarl over their kill. I brood on
Our wars, sleepless here and, to right
A relentless Heaven and Earth, powerless.
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Evening falls on palace walls shaded by flowering trees, with cry of birds
myriad doors of the palace, and the moon’s light increases as she moves intothe ninefold sky. Unable to sleep, I seem to hear the sound of the bronze-claddoors opening for the audience, or imagine the sound of bridle-bells bourneupon the wind. Having a sealed memorial to submit at tomorrow’s levee, I makefrequent inquiries about the…
Li Bai, no sight of you for a long time,
The whole world wants to kill you.I alone treasure your talent.Quick-minded, improvising thousands of poems,you roam like a falling leaf for a cup of wine.You studied here at Kuang Mountainand it’s time to return, now that your hair is white.
Out of the north the snow
Its clouds over Hunan go(Where few snows are):A myriad homes makes coldFar borne on the galeWith scattered leaflets oldWhere raindrops hail,Not grown to flake-like flowers.Empty of angels paleFlaccid my purse.Yet a silver pot may bailCredit for wine.No one to fetch it? Why thenI drain off the froth.Must I wait again and againTill the dizzy crowsCome…
Third day, third month festival,
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Through flocks of mountains, myriad valleys,
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Above the tower — a lone, twice-sized moon.
It scatters restless gold across the waves.On mats, it shines richer than silken gauze.Empty peaks, silence: among sparse stars,Not yet flawed, it drifts. Pine and cinnamonSpreading in my old garden . . . All light,All ten thousand miles at once in its light!