My host serves plenty of wine at this delightful night
For the Master of Gangling to show his musical might
As the moon strikes the city walls crows take flight
A penetrating wind turns all plants frosty white
The fuelled candelabra renders this spacious room bright
He first plays The Green Water then The Concubine
Everything becomes still the minute he plays the beginning bars
The audience hold their breath even stars become sparse
My thoughts hark back to the beautiful Huai Region far far away
To the clouds and hills the wonders are beginning here I must say
The Master of Eastern Rise lies sick and lonely in bed
Grey beard disheveled like windblown frost spread
My little boy is comforted seeing me red faced so fine
I laugh his misperception thanks to wine
Written on the Wall of Westwood Temple Su Shi (1037-1101) 江紹倫譯
Viewed directly it is a mountain its peak seen from the side
The wonders different when perceived from near far low or high
If you failed to recognize Mount Lu its true face
Just know you are in the heart of the very place
Farewell to Uncle Yun at Xuanzhou Li Bai (701-762) 江紹倫譯
What has deserted me yesterday I would not retain
What is disturbing me today its worry will not stay
See how wild geese ride the autumn wind ten thousand li away
A grand sight that calls for rounds of wine to celebrate
While your writings equal the powers of ancient poet saints
My essays are like little Xie’s prose simple and plain
We both share the same ambitions aiming high
Wishing to pick the moon down from the sky
I try to sever the river with my sword its torrents speed up the flow
I try to drown my sorrows with wine more sorrows come on tow
My life in this world is not without despair
Tomorrow let’s sail our boat freely with loosened hair
The moon o’er Mt. O Mei appears like autumn’s golden brow
She casts fancy shadows on the meandering river as it quietly flows
I will set out from Clear Stream for the Three Gorges tonight
How I miss you when the tall cliffs keep you out of my sight
Watching Jingting Peak in Solitude Li Bai (701-762) 江紹倫譯
Birds stop before reaching your majestic peak so high
Solitary clouds drift over you free and nigh
Where I can tirelessly watch birds and clouds the wonderful view
Here when I’m sitting in front of you
Tender hands fine
Well aged wine
In a spring-filled city willows confined
Harsh east winds
Happy feelings thin
My heart filled with misery
Yearnings years too long
Wrong Wrong Wrong
Spring like last year remains
I see you are so thin
Your red kerchief soaked with tears
Peach blossoms fall
By the deserted hall
Our love oaths still true
Messages could not get through
No No No
(We know very little about marriages in old times. They were ruled by parents for sure, but not entirely. Lu You divorced his dear wife Tang Wan by his mother’s demand. They met two years later when they were still very much in love. But they were already remarried by then. Those were days when poets were free to write poems on public walls, like graffiti’s today. Lu wrote the first poem. Tang saw it and wrote the second in reply.)
钗頭鳳 唐琬 (1124-1156)
世情薄 人情惡
雨送黃昏花易落
曉風乾 淚痕殘
欲箋心事 獨語斜闌
難 難 難
人成各 今非昨
病魂常似秋千索
角聲寒 夜闌珊
怕人尋問 咽淚妝歡
瞞 瞞 瞞
Tune: Phoenix Hairpin Tang Wan (1124-1156) 江紹倫譯
Fairness has worn thin
Relations belligerent
Rain-filled eves hasten flowers to fall
Morning breezes fuss
Traces of tears fade
I wish to write you my feelings
Only to lean on rails alone
Hard Hard Hard
You and I have gone different ways
‘Tis no more like yesterday
Hanging tight my injured soul continues to groan
Time-horns their frigid notes blow
Nights persist refusing to grow old
To dispel any query
Tears swallowed I appear cheery
Hide Hide Hide
(On transfer from Hubei to Hunan I wrote this as Wang Cheng Zhi feasted me)
How much more wind and rain can spring uphold
As it must forthwith recede when old
Lovers of spring are concerned seeing buds in hurry bloom
For early flowers usually shed their red petal too soon
Spring O Spring stay
I’ve often heard people say
Sweet grass roaming wide are doomed to go astray
Silently spring remains
When busy spiders weave webs on painted eaves day by day
To catch willow downs before they are blown away
What could a consort do
As nuptial dates are foregone when due
A favoured beauty will turn envy eyes naturally
Even if love could be bought by songs readily
To whom could she complain this overlooked affection
Keep your dance stationed
You must have seen
How beauties fat and slim to dust they turned in
Unjust sorrows are bitterest to swallow
Where the sun sets heart-broken are the willows
Echoing Bai Ju Yi on Our First Meeting Liu Yu Xi (772-842) 江紹倫譯
The south-west mountain and river region is desolation
Where in exile for twenty-three years I had lived in isolation
To mourn for departed friends I croon hearing but bamboo cries
On native land I existed like caste debris
A thousand sails had passed this sunken ship by
Ten thousand flowers had bloomed around this injured tree
As I hear you chant this comradeship melody today
I raise this cup to wish our good spirit will forever stay
Meandering through green willows the river murmurs on
I hear you on your boat singing me a song
While the sun shines in the east the west is in rain
You my dear appears aloof but your love for me is plain
