where Ming-fei was born and bred–
the village is still there.
Once she left the crimson terraces,
there was nothing but endless desert;
only her evergreen grave is left
to face the twilight.
Portraits have recorded
her spring-fresh face;
the tinkle of girdle pendants heralds
her soul’s vain return by moonlight.
For a thousand years the pipa
has wailed in its alien tongue,
as if its strings bemoan in song
her tragic tale of grief.
Regarded by our servants with disdain,We are grown old and gray before our time.Yet in your joyful, carefree company,The most consoling thought occurs to me:Though we are doomed to poverty and strife,Our poems shall have a long and prosperous life.
Chiang-nan is a pestilential land;no word from you there in exile.You have been in my dreams, old friend,as if knowing how much I miss you.Caught in a net,how is it you still have wings?I fear you are no longer mortal;the distance to here is enormous.When your spirit came, the maples were green;when it went, the…
I remember how formerly, when the Emperor’s rainbow banner made its way into the South Park, everything in the park seemed to bloom with a brighter color. The First Lady of the Chao-yang Palace rode in the same carriage as her lord inattendance at his side, while before the carriage rode maids of honour equipped…
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…
Infinite forest, bleakly shedding leaf after leaf;inexhaustible river, rolling on wave after wave.Through a thousand miles of melancholy autumn, I travel;carrying a hundred years of sickness, I climb to this terrace.Hardship and bitter regret have frosted my temples–and what torments me most? Giving up wine!
This southern scenery seems colorful indeed,When you are here among the fallen flowers.
