故人西辭黃鶴樓 煙花三月下揚州
孤帆遠影碧山盡 唯見長江天際流
Farewell – on seeing Meng Hao-jan off from Brown Crane Tower as he took his departure for Kuang-lin, tr by Father John Turner
And so, dear friend, at Brown Crane Tower you,
Bidding the West adieu,
‘Mid April mists and blossoms go,
Till in the vast blue-green
Your lonely sail’s far shade no more is seen,
Only on the sky’s verge the River’s flow.
危樓高百尺﹐
手可摘星辰。
不敢高聲語﹐
恐驚天上人。
Overnight at a Mountain Temple tr. SL Kong (1953)
High on the cliff the dangling temple stands
Where I can pluck stars with my hands
Deep at night I dare not speak aloud
Else I wake the dwellers above the cloud
对酒不觉暝，
落花盈我衣。
醉起步溪月，
鸟还人亦稀。
Self-Abandonment
tr. Arthur Waley
I sat drinking and did not notice the dusk,
Till falling petals filled the folds of my dress.
Drunken I rose and walked to the moonlit stream;
The birds were gone, and men also few.