001

五言古詩

張九齡

感遇其一

孤鴻海上來， 池潢不敢顧；
側見雙翠鳥， 巢在三珠樹。
矯矯珍木巔， 得無金丸懼？
美服患人指， 高明逼神惡。
今我遊冥冥， 弋者何所慕？

Five-character-ancient-verse

Zhang Jiuling

THOUGHTS I

A lonely swan from the sea flies,
To alight on puddles it does not deign.
Nesting in the poplar of pearls
It spies and questions green birds twain:
"Don't you fear the threat of slings,
Perched on top of branches so high?
Nice clothes invite pointing fingers,
High climbers god's good will defy.
Bird-hunters will crave me in vain,
For I roam the limitless sky."

002

五言古詩

張九齡

感遇其二

蘭葉春葳蕤， 桂華秋皎潔；
欣欣此生意， 自爾為佳節。
誰知林棲者？ 聞風坐相悅，
草木有本心， 何求美人折？

Five-character-ancient-verse

Zhang Jiuling

ORCHID AND ORANGE I

Tender orchid-leaves in spring
And cinnamon- blossoms bright in autumn
Are as self- contained as life is,
Which conforms them to the seasons.
Yet why will you think that a forest-hermit,
Allured by sweet winds and contented with beauty,
Would no more ask to-be transplanted
THan Would any other natural flower?

003

五言古詩

張九齡

感遇其三

幽人歸獨臥， 滯慮洗孤清，
持此謝高鳥， 因之傳遠情。
日夕懷空意， 人誰感至精？
飛沈理自隔， 何所慰吾誠？

Five-character-ancient-verse

Zhang Jiuling

THOUGHTS III

The hermit in his lone abode
Nurses his thoughts cleansed of care,
Them he projects to the wild goose
For it to his distant Sovereign to bear.
Who will be moved by the sincerity
Of my vain day-and-night prayer?
What comfort is for my loyalty
When fliers and sinkers can compare?

004

五言古詩

張九齡

感遇其四

江南有丹橘， 經冬猶綠林；
豈伊地氣暖？ 自有歲寒心。
可以薦嘉客， 奈何阻重深？
運命惟所遇， 循環不可尋。
徒言樹桃李， 此木豈無陰？

Five-character-ancient-verse

Zhang Jiuling

ORCHID AND ORANGE II

Here, south of the Yangzi, grows a red orangetree.
All winter long its leaves are green,
Not because of a warmer soil,
But because its' nature is used to the cold.
Though it might serve your honourable guests,
You leave it here, far below mountain and river.
Circumstance governs destiny.
Cause and effect are an infinite cycle.
You plant your peach-trees and your plums,
You forget the shade from this other tree.

005

五言古詩

李白

下終南山過斛斯山人宿置酒

暮從碧山下， 山月隨人歸；
卻顧所來徑， 蒼蒼橫翠微。
相攜及田家， 童稚開荊扉；
綠竹入幽徑， 青蘿拂行衣。
歡言得所憩， 美酒聊共揮；
長歌吟松風， 曲盡河星稀。
我醉君復樂， 陶然共忘機。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Li Bai

DOWN ZHONGNAN MOUNTAIN
TO THE KIND PILLOW AND BOWL OF HUSI

Down the blue mountain in the evening,
Moonlight was my homeward escort.
Looking back, I saw my path
Lie in levels of deep shadow....
I was passing the farm-house of a friend,
When his children called from a gate of thorn
And led me twining through jade bamboos
Where green vines caught and held my clothes.
And I was glad of a chance to rest
And glad of a chance to drink with my friend....
We sang to the tune of the wind in the pines;
And we finished our songs as the stars went down,
When, I being drunk and my friend more than happy,
Between us we forgot the world.

006

五言古詩

李白

月下獨酌

花間一壺酒， 獨酌無相親；
舉杯邀明月， 對影成三人。
月既不解飲， 影徒隨我身；
暫伴月將影， 行樂須及春。
我歌月徘徊， 我舞影零亂；
醒時同交歡， 醉後各分散。
永結無情遊， 相期邈雲漢。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Li Bai

DRINKING ALONE WITH THE MOON

From a pot of wine among the flowers
I drank alone. There was no one with me --
Till, raising my cup, I asked the bright moon
To bring me my shadow and make us three.
Alas, the moon was unable to drink
And my shadow tagged me vacantly;
But still for a while I had these friends
To cheer me through the end of spring....
I sang. The moon encouraged me.
I danced. My shadow tumbled after.
As long as I knew, we were boon companions.
And then I was drunk, and we lost one another.
...Shall goodwill ever be secure?
I watch the long road of the River of Stars.

007

五言古詩

李白

春思

燕草如碧絲， 秦桑低綠枝；
當君懷歸日， 是妾斷腸時。
春風不相識， 何事入羅幃？

Five-character-ancient-verse

Li Bai

IN SPRING

Your grasses up north are as blue as jade,
Our mulberries here curve green-threaded branches;
And at last you think of returning home,
Now when my heart is almost broken....
O breeze of the spring, since I dare not know you,
Why part the silk curtains by my bed?

008

五言古詩

杜甫

望嶽

岱宗夫如何？ 齊魯青未了。
造化鍾神秀， 陰陽割昏曉。
盪胸生層雲， 決眥入歸鳥。
會當凌絕頂， 一覽眾山小。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

A VIEW OF TAISHAN

What shall I say of the Great Peak? --
The ancient dukedoms are everywhere green,
Inspired and stirred by the breath of creation,
With the Twin Forces balancing day and night.
...I bare my breast toward opening clouds,
I strain my sight after birds flying home.
When shall I reach the top and hold
All mountains in a single glance?

009

五言古詩

杜甫

贈衛八處士

人生不相見， 動如參與商，
今夕復何夕？ 共此燈燭光。
少壯能幾時？ 鬢髮各已蒼。
訪舊半為鬼， 驚呼熱中腸。
焉知二十載， 重上君子堂。
昔別君未婚， 兒女忽成行；
怡然敬父執， 問我來何方。
問答乃未已， 驅兒羅酒漿。
夜雨剪春韭， 新炊間黃粱。
主稱會面難， 一舉累十觴；
十觴亦不醉， 感子故意長。
明日隔山岳， 世事兩茫茫。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

TO MY RETIRED FRIEND WEI

It is almost as hard for friends to meet
As for the morning and evening stars.
Tonight then is a rare event,
Joining, in the candlelight,
Two men who were young not long ago
But now are turning grey at the temples.
...To find that half our friends are dead
Shocks us, burns our hearts with grief.
We little guessed it would be twenty years
Before I could visit you again.
When I went away, you were still unmarried;
But now these boys and girls in a row
Are very kind to their father's old friend.
They ask me where I have been on my journey;
And then, when we have talked awhile,
They bring and show me wines and dishes,
Spring chives cut in the night-rain
And brown rice cooked freshly a special way.
...My host proclaims it a festival,
He urges me to drink ten cups --
But what ten cups could make me as drunk
As I always am with your love in my heart?
...Tomorrow the mountains will separate us;
After tomorrow-who can say?

010

五言古詩

杜甫

佳人

絕代有佳人， 幽居在空谷；
自云良家子， 零落依草木。
關中昔喪亂， 兄弟遭殺戮；
官高何足論？ 不得收骨肉。
世情惡衰歇， 萬事隨轉燭。
夫婿輕薄兒， 新人美如玉。
合昏尚知時， 鴛鴦不獨宿；
但見新人笑， 那聞舊人哭？
在山泉水清， 出山泉水濁。
侍婢賣珠迴， 牽蘿補茅屋。
摘花不插髮， 采柏動盈掬。
天寒翠袖薄， 日暮倚修竹。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

ALONE IN HER BEAUTY

Who is lovelier than she?
Yet she lives alone in an empty valley.
She tells me she came from a good family
Which is humbled now into the dust.
...When trouble arose in the Kuan district,
Her brothers and close kin were killed.
What use were their high offices,
Not even shielding their own lives? --
The world has but scorn for adversity;
Hope goes out, like the light of a candle.
Her husband, with a vagrant heart,
Seeks a new face like a new piece of jade;
And when morning-glories furl at night
And mandarin-ducks lie side by side,
All he can see is the smile of the new love,
While the old love weeps unheard.
The brook was pure in its mountain source,
But away from the mountain its waters darken.
...Waiting for her maid to come from selling pearls
For straw to cover the roof again,
She picks a few flowers, no longer for her hair,
And lets pine-needles fall through her fingers,
And, forgetting her thin silk sleeve and the cold,
She leans in the sunset by a tall bamboo.

011

五言古詩

杜甫

夢李白之一

死別已吞聲， 生別常惻惻。
江南瘴癘地， 逐客無消息。
故人入我夢， 明我長相憶；
君今在羅網， 何以有羽翼？
恐非平生魂， 路遠不可測。
魂來楓林青， 魂返關塞黑；
落月滿屋梁， 猶疑照顏色。
水深波浪闊， 無使蛟龍得。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

SEEING Li Bai IN A DREAM I

There are sobs when death is the cause of parting;
But life has its partings again and again.
...From the poisonous damps of the southern river
You had sent me not one sign from your exile --
Till you came to me last night in a dream,
Because I am always thinking of you.
I wondered if it were really you,
Venturing so long a journey.
You came to me through the green of a forest,
You disappeared by a shadowy fortress....
Yet out of the midmost mesh of your snare,
How could you lift your wings and use them?
...I woke, and the low moon's glimmer on a rafter
Seemed to be your face, still floating in the air.
...There were waters to cross, they were wild and tossing;
If you fell, there were dragons and rivermonsters.

012

五言古詩

杜甫

夢李白之二

浮雲終日行， 遊子久不至；
三夜頻夢君， 情親見君意。
告歸常局促， 苦道來不易。
江湖多風波， 舟楫恐失墜。
出門搔白首， 若負平生志。
冠蓋滿京華， 斯人獨憔悴。
孰云網恢恢？ 將老身反累！
千秋萬歲名， 寂寞身後事。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

SEEING Li Bai IN A DREAM II

This cloud, that has drifted all day through the sky,
May, like a wanderer, never come back....
Three nights now I have dreamed of you --
As tender, intimate and real as though I were awake.
And then, abruptly rising to go,
You told me the perils of adventure
By river and lake-the storms, the wrecks,
The fears that are borne on a little boat;
And, here in my doorway, you rubbed your white head
As if there were something puzzling you.
...Our capital teems with officious people,
While you are alone and helpless and poor.
Who says that the heavenly net never fails?
It has brought you ill fortune, old as you are.
...A thousand years' fame, ten thousand years' fame-
What good, when you are dead and gone.

013

五言古詩

王維

送別

下馬飲君酒， 問君何所之？
君言不得意， 歸臥南山陲。
但去莫復聞， 白雲無盡時。

Five-character-quatrain

Wang Wei

AT PARTING

I dismount from my horse and I offer you wine,
And I ask you where you are going and why.
And you answer: "I am discontent
And would rest at the foot of the southern mountain.
So give me leave and ask me no questions.
White clouds pass there without end."

014

五言古詩

王維

送綦毋潛落第還鄉

聖代無隱者， 英靈盡來歸，
遂令東山客， 不得顧採薇。
既至金門遠， 孰云吾道非？
江淮度寒食， 京洛縫春衣。
置酒長安道， 同心與我違；
行當浮桂棹， 未幾拂荊扉。
遠樹帶行客， 孤城當落暉。
吾謀適不用， 勿謂知音稀？

Five-character-quatrain

Wang Wei

TO QIWU QIAN BOUND HOME
AFTER FAILING IN AN EXAMINATION

In a happy reign there should be no hermits;
The wise and able should consult together....
So you, a man of the eastern mountains,
Gave up your life of picking herbs
And came all the way to the Gate of Gold --
But you found your devotion unavailing.
...To spend the Day of No Fire on one of the southern rivers,
You have mended your spring clothes here in these northern cities.
I pour you the farewell wine as you set out from the capital --
Soon I shall be left behind here by my bosomfriend.
In your sail-boat of sweet cinnamon-wood
You will float again toward your own thatch door,
Led along by distant trees
To a sunset shining on a far-away town.
...What though your purpose happened to fail,
Doubt not that some of us can hear high music.

015

五言古詩

王維

青谿

言入黃花川， 每逐青谿水；
隨山將萬轉， 趣途無百里。
聲喧亂石中， 色靜深松裡；
漾漾汎菱荇， 澄澄映葭葦。
我心素已閒， 清川澹如此。
請留盤石上， 垂釣將已矣！

Five-character-quatrain

Wang Wei

A GREEN STREAM

I have sailed the River of Yellow Flowers,
Borne by the channel of a green stream,
Rounding ten thousand turns through the mountains
On a journey of less than thirty miles....
Rapids hum over heaped rocks;
But where light grows dim in the thick pines,
The surface of an inlet sways with nut-horns
And weeds are lush along the banks.
...Down in my heart I have always been as pure
As this limpid water is....
Oh, to remain on a broad flat rock
And to cast a fishing-line forever!

016

五言古詩

王維

渭川田家

斜光照墟落， 窮巷牛羊歸。
野老念牧童， 倚杖候荊扉。
雉雊麥苗秀， 蠶眠桑葉稀。
田夫荷鋤立， 相見語依依。
即此羨閒逸， 悵然吟式微。

Five-character-quatrain

Wang Wei

A FARM-HOUSE ON THE WEI RIVER

In the slant of the sun on the country-side,
Cattle and sheep trail home along the lane;
And a rugged old man in a thatch door
Leans on a staff and thinks of his son, the herdboy.
There are whirring pheasants? full wheat-ears,
Silk-worms asleep, pared mulberry-leaves.
And the farmers, returning with hoes on their shoulders,
Hail one another familiarly.
...No wonder I long for the simple life
And am sighing the old song, Oh, to go Back Again!

017

五言古詩

王維

西施詠

艷色天下重， 西施寧久微？
朝為越溪女， 暮作吳宮妃。
賤日豈殊眾？ 貴來方悟稀。
邀人傅脂粉， 不自著羅衣，
君寵益嬌態， 君憐無是非。
當時浣紗伴， 莫得同車歸。
持謝鄰家子， 效顰安可希？

Five-character-quatrain

Wang Wei

THE BEAUTIFUL XI SHI

Since beauty is honoured all over the Empire,
How could Xi Shi remain humbly at home? --
Washing clothes at dawn by a southern lake --
And that evening a great lady in a palace of the north:
Lowly one day, no different from the others,
The next day exalted, everyone praising her.
No more would her own hands powder her face
Or arrange on her shoulders a silken robe.
And the more the King loved her, the lovelier she looked,
Blinding him away from wisdom.
...Girls who had once washed silk beside her
Were kept at a distance from her chariot.
And none of the girls in her neighbours' houses
By pursing their brows could copy her beauty.

018

五言古詩

孟浩然

秋登蘭山寄張五

北山白雲裡， 隱者自怡悅；
相望始登高， 心隨雁飛滅。
愁因薄暮起， 興是清秋發。
時見歸村人， 沙行渡頭歇。
天邊樹若薺， 江畔洲如月。
何當載酒來， 共醉重陽節。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Meng Haoran

ON CLIMBING ORCHID MOUNTAIN
IN THE AUTUMN TO ZHANG

On a northern peak among white clouds
You have found your hermitage of peace;
And now, as I climb this mountain to see you,
High with the wildgeese flies my heart.
The quiet dusk might seem a little sad
If this autumn weather were not so brisk and clear;
I look down at the river bank, with homeward-bound villagers
Resting on the sand till the ferry returns;
There are trees at the horizon like a row of grasses
And against the river's rim an island like the moon
I hope that you will come and meet me, bringing a basket of wine --
And we'll celebrate together the Mountain Holiday.

019

五言古詩

孟浩然

夏日南亭懷辛大

山光忽西落， 池月漸東上。
散髮乘夜涼， 開軒臥閑敞。
荷風送香氣， 竹露滴清響。
欲取鳴琴彈， 恨無知音賞。
感此懷故人， 中宵勞夢想。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Meng Haoran

IN SUMMER AT THE SOUTH PAVILION
THINKING OF XING

The mountain-light suddenly fails in the west,
In the east from the lake the slow moon rises.
I loosen my hair to enjoy the evening coolness
And open my window and lie down in peace.
The wind brings me odours of lotuses,
And bamboo-leaves drip with a music of dew....
I would take up my lute and I would play,
But, alas, who here would understand?
And so I think of you, old friend,
O troubler of my midnight dreams !

020

五言古詩

孟浩然

宿業師山房待丁大不至

夕陽度西嶺， 群壑倏已暝；
松月生夜涼， 風泉滿清聽。
樵人歸欲盡， 煙鳥棲初定。
之子期宿來， 孤琴候蘿徑。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Meng Haoran

AT THE MOUNTAIN-LODGE OF THE BUDDHIST PRIEST YE
WAITING IN VAIN FOR MY FRIEND DING

Now that the sun has set beyond the western range,
Valley after valley is shadowy and dim....
And now through pine-trees come the moon and the chill of evening,
And my ears feel pure with the sound of wind and water
Nearly all the woodsmen have reached home,
Birds have settled on their perches in the quiet mist....
And still -- because you promised -- I am waiting for you, waiting,
Playing lute under a wayside vine.

021

五言古詩

王昌齡

同從弟南齋翫月憶山陰崔少府

高臥南齋時， 開帷月初吐；
清輝淡水木， 演漾在窗戶。
苒苒幾盈虛？ 澄澄變今古。
美人清江畔， 是夜越吟苦。
千里其如何？ 微風吹蘭杜。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Wang Changling

WITH MY BROTHER AT THE SOUTH STUDY
THINKING IN THE MOONLIGHT OF VICE-PREFECT
CUI IN SHANYIN

Lying on a high seat in the south study,
We have lifted the curtain-and we see the rising moon
Brighten with pure light the water and the grove
And flow like a wave on our window and our door.
It will move through the cycle, full moon and then crescent again,
Calmly, beyond our wisdom, altering new to old.
...Our chosen one, our friend, is now by a limpid river --
Singing, perhaps, a plaintive eastern song.
He is far, far away from us, three hundred miles away.
And yet a breath of orchids comes along the wind.

022

五言古詩

邱為

尋西山隱者不遇

絕頂一茅茨， 直上三十里；
扣關無僮僕， 窺室惟案几。
若非巾柴車？ 應是釣秋水。
差池不相見， 黽勉空仰止。
草色新雨中， 松聲晚窗裡；
及茲契幽絕， 自足蕩心耳。
雖無賓主意， 頗得清淨理。
興盡方下山， 何必待之子。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Qiu Wei

AFTER MISSING THE RECLUSE
ON THE WESTERN MOUNTAIN

To your hermitage here on the top of the mountain
I have climbed, without stopping, these ten miles.
I have knocked at your door, and no one answered;
I have peeped into your room, at your seat beside the table.
Perhaps you are out riding in your canopied chair,
Or fishing, more likely, in some autumn pool.
Sorry though I am to be missing you,
You have become my meditation --
The beauty of your grasses, fresh with rain,
And close beside your window the music of your pines.
I take into my being all that I see and hear,
Soothing my senses, quieting my heart;
And though there be neither host nor guest,
Have I not reasoned a visit complete?
...After enough, I have gone down the mountain.
Why should I wait for you any longer?

023

五言古詩

綦毋潛

春泛若耶溪

幽意無斷絕， 此去隨所偶；
晚風吹行舟， 花路入溪口。
際夜轉西壑， 隔山望南斗。
潭煙飛溶溶， 林月低向後。
生事且瀰漫， 願為持竿叟。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Qiwu Qian

A BOAT IN SPRING ON RUOYA LAKE

Thoughtful elation has no end:
Onward I bear it to whatever come.
And my boat and I, before the evening breeze
Passing flowers, entering the lake,
Turn at nightfall toward the western valley,
Where I watch the south star over the mountain
And a mist that rises, hovering soft,
And the low moon slanting through the trees;
And I choose to put away from me every worldly matter
And only to be an old man with a fishing-pole.

024

五言古詩

常建

宿王昌齡隱居

清溪深不測， 隱處唯孤雲；
松際露微月， 清光猶為君。
茅亭宿花影， 藥院滋苔紋。
余亦謝時去， 西山鸞鶴群。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Chang Jian

AT WANG CHANGLIN' S RETREAT

Here, beside a clear deep lake,
You live accompanied by clouds;
Or soft through the pine the moon arrives
To be your own pure-hearted friend.
You rest under thatch in the shadow of your flowers,
Your dewy herbs flourish in their bed of moss.
Let me leave the world. Let me alight, like you,
On your western mountain with phoenixes and cranes.

025

五言古詩

岑參

與高適薛據登慈恩寺浮圖

塔勢如湧出， 孤高聳天宮；
登臨出世界， 磴道盤虛空。
突兀壓神州， 崢嶸如鬼工；
四角礙白日， 七層摩蒼穹。
下窺指高鳥， 俯聽聞驚風。
連山若波濤， 奔湊如朝東。
青槐夾馳道， 宮館何玲瓏？
秋色從西來， 蒼然滿關中。
五陵北原上， 萬古青濛濛。
淨理了可悟， 勝因夙所宗。
誓將挂冠去， 覺道資無窮。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Cen Can

ASCENDING THE PAGODA AT THE TEMPLE OF KIND
FAVOUR WITH GAO SHI AND XUE JU

The pagoda, rising abruptly from earth,
Reaches to the very Palace of Heaven....
Climbing, we seem to have left the world behind us,
With the steps we look down on hung from space.
It overtops a holy land
And can only have been built by toil of the spirit.
Its four sides darken the bright sun,
Its seven stories cut the grey clouds;
Birds fly down beyond our sight,
And the rapid wind below our hearing;
Mountain-ranges, toward the east,
Appear to be curving and flowing like rivers;
Far green locust-trees line broad roads
Toward clustered palaces and mansions;
Colours of autumn, out of the west,
Enter advancing through the city;
And northward there lie, in five graveyards,
Calm forever under dewy green grass,
Those who know life's final meaning
Which all humankind must learn.
...Henceforth I put my official hat aside.
To find the Eternal Way is the only happiness.

026

五言古詩

元結

賊退示官吏并序

昔歲逢太平， 山林二十年。
泉源在庭戶， 洞壑當門前。
井稅有常期， 日晏猶得眠。
忽然遭時變， 數歲親戎旃。
今來典斯郡， 山夷又紛然。
城小賊不屠， 人貧傷可憐。
是以陷鄰境， 此州獨見全。
使臣將王命， 豈不如賊焉？
令彼徵歛者， 迫之如火煎。
誰能絕人命？ 以作時世賢。
思欲委符節， 引竿自刺船，
將家就魚麥， 歸老江湖邊。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Yuan Jie

TO THE TAX-COLLECTORS
AFTER THE BANDITS RETREAT

I still remember those days of peace --
Twenty years among mountains and forests,
The pure stream running past my yard,
The caves and valleys at my door.
Taxes were light and regular then,
And I could sleep soundly and late in the morning-
Till suddenly came a sorry change.
...For years now I have been serving in the army.
When I began here as an official,
The mountain bandits were rising again;
But the town was so small it was spared by the thieves,
And the people so poor and so pitiable
That all other districts were looted
And this one this time let alone.
...Do you imperial commissioners
Mean to be less kind than bandits?
The people you force to pay the poll
Are like creatures frying over a fire.
And how can you sacrifice human lives,
Just to be known as able collectors? --
...Oh, let me fling down my official seal,
Let me be a lone fisherman in a small boat
And support my family on fish and wheat
And content my old age with rivers and lakes!

027

五言古詩

韋應物

郡齋雨中與諸文士燕集

兵衛森畫戟， 宴寢凝清香。
海上風雨至， 逍遙池閣涼。
煩痾近消散， 嘉賓復滿堂。
自慚居處崇， 未睹斯民康。
理會是非遣， 性達形跡忘。
鮮肥屬時禁， 蔬果幸見嘗。
俯飲一杯酒， 仰聆金玉章。
神歡體自輕， 意欲淩風翔。
吳中盛文史， 群彥今汪洋。
方知大蕃地， 豈曰財賦強？

Five-character-ancient-verse

Wei Yingwu

ENTERTAINING LITERARY MEN IN MY
OFFICIAL RESIDENCE ON A RAINY DAY

Outside are insignia, shown in state;
But here are sweet incense-clouds, quietly ours.
Wind and rain, coming in from sea,
Have cooled this pavilion above the lake
And driven the feverish heat away
From where my eminent guests are gathered.
...Ashamed though I am of my high position
While people lead unhappy lives,
Let us reasonably banish care
And just be friends, enjoying nature.
Though we have to go without fish and meat,
There are fruits and vegetables aplenty.
...We bow, we take our cups of wine,
We give our attention to beautiful poems.
When the mind is exalted, the body is lightened
And feels as if it could float in the wind.
...Suzhou is famed as a centre of letters;
And all you writers, coming here,
Prove that the name of a great land
Is made by better things than wealth.

028

五言古詩

韋應物

初發揚子寄元大校書

悽悽去親愛， 泛泛入煙霧；
歸棹洛陽人， 殘鐘廣陵樹。
今朝為此別， 何處還相遇？
世事波上舟， 沿洄安得住。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Wei Yingwu

SETTING SAIL ON THE YANGZI
TO SECRETARY YUAN

Wistful, away from my friends and kin,
Through mist and fog I float and float
With the sail that bears me toward Loyang.
In Yangzhou trees linger bell-notes of evening,
Marking the day and the place of our parting....
When shall we meet again and where?
...Destiny is a boat on the waves,
Borne to and fro, beyond our will.

029

五言古詩

韋應物

寄全椒山中道士

今朝郡齋冷， 忽念山中客；
澗底束荊薪， 歸來煮白石。
欲持一瓢酒， 遠慰風雨夕；
落葉滿空山， 何處尋行跡。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Wei Yingwu

A POEM TO A TAOIST HERMIT
CHUANJIAO MOUNTAIN

My office has grown cold today;
And I suddenly think of my mountain friend
Gathering firewood down in the valley
Or boiling white stones for potatoes in his hut....
I wish I might take him a cup of wine
To cheer him through the evening storm;
But in fallen leaves that have heaped the bare slopes,
How should I ever find his footprints!

030

五言古詩

韋應物

長安遇馮著

客從東方來， 衣上灞陵雨。
問客何為來？ 采山因買斧。
冥冥花正開， 颺颺燕新乳。
昨別今已春， 鬢絲生幾縷。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Wei Yingwu

ON MEETING MY FRIEND FENG ZHU
IN THE CAPITAL

Out of the east you visit me,
With the rain of Baling still on your clothes,
I ask you what you have come here for;
You say: "To buy an ax for cutting wood in the mountains"
...Hidden deep in a haze of blossom,
Swallow fledglings chirp at ease
As they did when we parted, a year ago....
How grey our temples have grown since them!

031

五言古詩

韋應物

夕次盱眙縣

落帆逗淮鎮， 停舫臨孤驛。
浩浩風起波， 冥冥日沈夕。
人歸山郭暗， 雁下蘆洲白。
獨夜憶秦關， 聽鐘未眠客。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Wei Yingwu

MOORING AT TWILIGHT IN YUYI DISTRICT

Furling my sail near the town of Huai,
I find for harbour a little cove
Where a sudden breeze whips up the waves.
The sun is growing dim now and sinks in the dusk.
People are coming home. The bright mountain-peak darkens.
Wildgeese fly down to an island of white weeds.
...At midnight I think of a northern city-gate,
And I hear a bell tolling between me and sleep.

032

五言古詩

韋應物

東郊

吏舍跼終年， 出郊曠清曙。
楊柳散和風， 青山澹吾慮。
依叢適自憩， 緣澗還復去。
微雨靄芳原， 春鳩鳴何處？
樂幽心屢止， 遵事跡猶遽；
終罷斯結廬， 慕陶真可庶。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Wei Yingwu

EAST OF THE TOWN

From office confinement all year long,
I have come out of town to be free this morning
Where willows harmonize the wind
And green hills lighten the cares of the world.
I lean by a tree and rest myself
Or wander up and down a stream.
...Mists have wet the fragrant meadows;
A spring dove calls from some hidden place.
...With quiet surroundings, the mind is at peace,
But beset with affairs, it grows restless again....
Here I shall finally build me a cabin,
As Tao Qian built one long ago.

033

五言古詩

韋應物

送楊氏女

永日方慼慼， 出行復悠悠。
女子今有行， 大江泝輕舟。
爾輩苦無恃， 撫念益慈柔；
幼為長所育， 兩別泣不休。
對此結中腸， 義往難復留。
自小闕內訓， 事姑貽我憂；
賴茲託令門， 仁卹庶無尤。
貧儉誠所尚， 資從豈待周！
孝恭遵婦道， 容止順其猷。
別離在今晨， 見爾當何秋？
居閑始自遣， 臨感忽難收。
歸來視幼女， 零淚緣纓流。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Wei Yingwu

TO MY DAUGHTER
ON HER MARRIAGE INTO THE YANG FAMILY

My heart has been heavy all day long
Because you have so far to go.
The marriage of a girl, away from her parents,
Is the launching of a little boat on a great river.
...You were very young when your mother died,
Which made me the more tender of you.
Your elder sister has looked out for you,
And now you are both crying and cannot part.
This makes my grief the harder to bear;
Yet it is right that you should go.
...Having had from childhood no mother to guide you,
How will you honour your mother-in-law?
It's an excellent family; they will be kind to you,
They will forgive you your mistakes --
Although ours has been so pure and poor
That you can take them no great dowry.
Be gentle and respectful, as a woman should be,
Careful of word and look, observant of good example.
...After this morning we separate,
There's no knowing for how long....
I always try to hide my feelings --
They are suddenly too much for me,
When I turn and see my younger daughter
With the tears running down her cheek.

034

五言古詩

柳宗元

晨詣超師院讀禪經

汲井漱寒齒， 清心拂塵服，
閒持貝葉書， 步出東齋讀。
真源了無取， 忘跡世所逐；
遺言冀可冥， 繕性何由熟？
道人庭宇靜， 苔色連深竹；
日出霧露餘， 青松如膏沐。
澹然離言說， 悟悅心自足。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Liu Zongyuan

READING BUDDHIST CLASSICS WITH ZHAO
AT HIS TEMPLE IN THE EARLY MORNING

I clean my teeth in water drawn from a cold well;
And while I brush my clothes, I purify my mind;
Then, slowly turning pages in the Tree-Leaf Book,
I recite, along the path to the eastern shelter.
...The world has forgotten the true fountain of this teaching
And people enslave themselves to miracles and fables.
Under the given words I want the essential meaning,
I look for the simplest way to sow and reap my nature.
Here in the quiet of the priest's templecourtyard,
Mosses add their climbing colour to the thick bamboo;
And now comes the sun, out of mist and fog,
And pines that seem to be new-bathed;
And everything is gone from me, speech goes, and reading,
Leaving the single unison.

035

五言古詩

柳宗元

溪居

久為簪組累， 幸此南夷謫。
閑依農圃鄰， 偶似山林客。
曉耕翻露草， 夜榜響溪石，
來往不逢人， 長歌楚天碧。

Five-character-ancient-verse

Liu Zongyuan

DWELLING BY A STREAM

I had so long been troubled by official hat and robe
That I am glad to be an exile here in this wild southland.
I am a neighbour now of planters and reapers.
I am a guest of the mountains and woods.
I plough in the morning, turning dewy grasses,
And at evening tie my fisher-boat, breaking the quiet stream.
Back and forth I go, scarcely meeting anyone,
And sing a long poem and gaze at the blue sky.

036

樂府

王昌齡

塞上曲

蟬鳴空桑林， 八月蕭關道；
出塞復入塞， 處處黃蘆草。
從來幽并客， 皆向沙場老；
莫學遊俠兒， 矜誇紫騮好。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Wang Changling

AT A BORDER-FORTRESS

Cicadas complain of thin mulberry-trees
In the Eighth-month chill at the frontier pass.
Through the gate and back again, all along the road,
There is nothing anywhere but yellow reeds and grasses
And the bones of soldiers from You and from Bing
Who have buried their lives in the dusty sand.
...Let never a cavalier stir you to envy
With boasts of his horse and his horsemanship

037

樂府

王昌齡

塞下曲

飲馬渡秋水， 水寒風似刀。
平沙日未沒， 黯黯見臨洮。
昔日長城戰， 咸言意氣高；
黃塵足今古， 白骨亂蓬蒿。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Wang Changling

UNDER A BORDER-FORTRESS

Drink, my horse, while we cross the autumn water!-
The stream is cold and the wind like a sword,
As we watch against the sunset on the sandy plain,
Far, far away, shadowy Lingtao.
Old battles, waged by those long walls,
Once were proud on all men's tongues.
But antiquity now is a yellow dust,
Confusing in the grasses its ruins and white bones.

038

樂府

李白

關山月

明月出天山， 蒼茫雲海間；
長風幾萬里， 吹度玉門關。
漢下白登道， 胡窺青海灣。
由來征戰地， 不見有人還。
戍客望邊色， 思歸多苦顏；
高樓當此夜， 歎息未應閑。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

THE MOON AT THE FORTIFIED PASS

The bright moon lifts from the Mountain of Heaven
In an infinite haze of cloud and sea,
And the wind, that has come a thousand miles,
Beats at the Jade Pass battlements....
China marches its men down Baideng Road
While Tartar troops peer across blue waters of the bay....
And since not one battle famous in history
Sent all its fighters back again,
The soldiers turn round, looking toward the border,
And think of home, with wistful eyes,
And of those tonight in the upper chambers
Who toss and sigh and cannot rest.

039

樂府

李白

子夜四時歌 春歌

秦地羅敷女， 采桑綠水邊。
素手青條上， 紅妝白日鮮。
蠶飢妾欲去， 五馬莫留連。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

BALLADS OF FOUR SEASONS: SPRING

The lovely Lo Fo of the western land
Plucks mulberry leaves by the waterside.
Across the green boughs stretches out her white hand;
In golden sunshine her rosy robe is dyed.
"my silkworms are hungry, I cannot stay.
Tarry not with your five-horse cab, I pray."

040

樂府

李白

子夜四時歌 夏歌

鏡湖三百里， 菡萏發荷花。
五月西施采， 人看隘若耶。
回舟不待月， 歸去越王家。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

BALLADS OF FOUR SEASONS: SUMMER

On Mirror Lake outspread for miles and miles,
The lotus lilies in full blossom teem.
In fifth moon Xi Shi gathers them with smiles,
Watchers o'erwhelm the bank of Yuoye Stream.
Her boat turns back without waiting moonrise
To yoyal house amid amorous sighs.

041

樂府

李白

子夜四時歌 秋歌

長安一片月， 萬戶擣衣聲；
秋風吹不盡， 總是玉關情。
何日平胡虜？ 良人罷遠征。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

A SONG OF AN AUTUMN MIDNIGHT

A slip of the moon hangs over the capital;
Ten thousand washing-mallets are pounding;
And the autumn wind is blowing my heart
For ever and ever toward the Jade Pass....
Oh, when will the Tartar troops be conquered,
And my husband come back from the long campaign!

042

樂府

李白

子夜四時歌 冬歌

明朝驛使發， 一夜絮征袍。
素手抽鍼冷， 那堪把剪刀。
裁縫寄遠道， 幾日到臨洮。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

BALLADS OF FOUR SEASONS: WINTER

The courier will depart next day, she's told.
She sews a warrior's gown all night.
Her fingers feel the needle cold.
How can she hold the scissors tight?
The work is done, she sends it far away.
When will it reach the town where warriors stay?

043

樂府

李白

長干行

妾髮初覆額， 折花門前劇；
郎騎竹馬來， 遶床弄青梅。
同居長干里， 兩小無嫌猜。
十四為君婦， 羞顏未嘗開；
低頭向暗壁， 千喚不一回，
十五始展眉， 願同塵與灰；
常存抱柱信， 豈上望夫臺？
十六君遠行， 瞿塘灩澦堆；
五月不可觸， 猿鳴天上哀。
門前遲行跡， 一一生綠苔；
苔深不能掃， 落葉秋風早。
八月蝴蝶來， 雙飛西園草。
感此傷妾心， 坐愁紅顏老。
早晚下三巴， 預將書報家；
相迎不道遠， 直至長風沙。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

A SONG OF CHANGGAN

My hair had hardly covered my forehead.
I was picking flowers, paying by my door,
When you, my lover, on a bamboo horse,
Came trotting in circles and throwing green plums.
We lived near together on a lane in Ch'ang-kan,
Both of us young and happy-hearted.
...At fourteen I became your wife,
So bashful that I dared not smile,
And I lowered my head toward a dark corner
And would not turn to your thousand calls;
But at fifteen I straightened my brows and laughed,
Learning that no dust could ever seal our love,
That even unto death I would await you by my post
And would never lose heart in the tower of silent watching.
...Then when I was sixteen, you left on a long journey
Through the Gorges of Ch'u-t'ang, of rock and whirling water.
And then came the Fifth-month, more than I could bear,
And I tried to hear the monkeys in your lofty far-off sky.
Your footprints by our door, where I had watched you go,
Were hidden, every one of them, under green moss,
Hidden under moss too deep to sweep away.
And the first autumn wind added fallen leaves.
And now, in the Eighth-month, yellowing butterflies
Hover, two by two, in our west-garden grasses
And, because of all this, my heart is breaking
And I fear for my bright cheeks, lest they fade.
...Oh, at last, when you return through the three Pa districts,
Send me a message home ahead!
And I will come and meet you and will never mind the distance,
All the way to Chang-feng Sha.

044

樂府

孟郊

烈女操

梧桐相待老， 鴛鴦會雙死；
貞婦貴殉夫， 捨生亦如此。
波瀾誓不起， 妾心井中水。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Meng Jiao

A SONG OF A PURE-HEARTED GIRL

Lakka-trees ripen two by two
And mandarin-ducks die side by side.
If a true-hearted girl will love only her husband,
In a life as faithfully lived as theirs,
What troubling wave can arrive to vex
A spirit like water in a timeless well?

045

樂府

孟郊

遊子吟

慈母手中線， 遊子身上衣；
臨行密密縫， 意恐遲遲歸。
誰言寸草心， 報得三春輝？

Folk-song-styled-verse

Meng Jiao

A TRAVELLER'S SONG

The thread in the hands of a fond-hearted mother
Makes clothes for the body of her wayward boy;
Carefully she sews and thoroughly she mends,
Dreading the delays that will keep him late from home.
But how much love has the inch-long grass
For three spring months of the light of the sun?

046

七言古詩

陳子昂

登幽州臺歌

前不見古人， 後不見來者；
念天地之悠悠， 獨愴然而涕下。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Chen Ziang

ON A GATE-TOWER AT YUZHOU

Where, before me, are the ages that have gone?
And where, behind me, are the coming generations?
I think of heaven and earth, without limit, without end,
And I am all alone and my tears fall down.

047

七言古詩

李頎

古意

男兒事長征， 少小幽燕客，
賭勝馬蹄下， 由來輕七尺；
殺人莫敢前， 鬚如蝟毛磔。
黃雲隴底白雪飛， 未得報恩不能歸。
遼東小婦年十五， 慣彈琵琶解歌舞，
今為羌笛出塞聲， 使我三軍淚如雨。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Qi

AN OLD AIR

There once was a man, sent on military missions,
A wanderer, from youth, on the You and Yan frontiers.
Under the horses' hoofs he would meet his foes
And, recklessly risking his seven-foot body,
Would slay whoever dared confront
Those moustaches that bristled like porcupinequills.
...There were dark clouds below the hills, there were white clouds above them,
But before a man has served full time, how can he go back?
In eastern Liao a girl was waiting, a girl of fifteen years,
Deft with a guitar, expert in dance and song.
...She seems to be fluting, even now, a reed-song of home,
Filling every soldier's eyes with homesick tears.

048

七言古詩

李頎

送陳章甫

四月南風大麥黃， 棗花未落桐葉長。
青山朝別暮還見， 嘶馬出門思故鄉。
陳侯立身何坦蕩？ 虯鬚虎眉仍大顙。
腹中貯書一萬卷， 不肯低頭在草莽。
東門酤酒飲我曹， 心輕萬事皆鴻毛，
醉臥不知白日暮， 有時空望孤雲高。
長河浪頭連天黑， 津口停舟渡不得；
鄭國遊人未及家， 洛陽行子空嘆息。
聞道故林相識多， 罷官昨日今如何。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Qi

A FAREWELL TO MY FRIEND CHEN ZHANGFU

In the Fourth-month the south wind blows plains of yellow barley,
Date-flowers have not faded yet and lakka-leaves are long.
The green peak that we left at dawn we still can see at evening,
While our horses whinny on the road, eager to turn homeward.
...Chen, my friend, you have always been a great and good man,
With your dragon's moustache, tiger's eyebrows and your massive forehead.
In your bosom you have shelved away ten thousand volumes.
You have held your head high, never bowed it in the dust.
...After buying us wine and pledging us, here at the eastern gate,
And taking things as lightly as a wildgoose feather,
Flat you lie, tipsy, forgetting the white sun;
But now and then you open your eyes and gaze at a high lone cloud.
...The tide-head of the lone river joins the darkening sky.
The ferryman beaches his boat. It has grown too late to sail.
And people on their way from Cheng cannot go home,
And people from Loyang sigh with disappointment.
...I have heard about the many friends around your wood land dwelling.
Yesterday you were dismissed. Are they your friends today?

049

七言古詩

李頎

琴歌

主人有酒歡今夕， 請奏鳴琴廣陵客。
月照城頭烏半飛， 霜淒萬樹風入衣；
銅鑪華燭燭增輝， 初彈淥水後楚妃。
一聲已動物皆靜， 四座無言星欲稀。
清淮奉使千餘里， 敢告雲山從此始。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Qi

A LUTE SONG

Our host, providing abundant wine to make the night mellow,
Asks his guest from Yangzhou to play for us on the lute.
Toward the moon that whitens the city-wall, black crows are flying,
Frost is on ten thousand trees, and the wind blows through our clothes;
But a copper stove has added its light to that of flowery candles,
And the lute plays The Green Water, and then The Queen of Chu.
Once it has begun to play, there is no other sound:
A spell is on the banquet, while the stars grow thin....
But three hundred miles from here, in Huai, official duties await him,
And so it's farewell, and the road again, under cloudy mountains.

050

七言古詩

李頎

聽董大彈胡笳聲兼寄語弄房給事

蔡女昔造胡笳聲， 一彈一十有八拍。
胡人落淚沾邊草， 漢使斷腸對歸客。
古戍蒼蒼烽火寒， 大荒沈沈飛雪白。
先拂聲絃後角羽， 四郊秋葉驚摵摵。
董夫子，通神明， 深山竊聽來妖精。
言遲更速皆應手， 將往復旋如有情。
空山百鳥散還合， 萬里浮雲陰且晴。
嘶酸雛雁失群夜， 斷絕胡兒戀母聲。
川為靜其波， 鳥亦罷其鳴；
烏孫部落家鄉遠， 邏娑沙塵哀怨生。
幽音變調忽飄灑， 長風吹林雨墮瓦；
迸泉颯颯飛木末， 野鹿呦呦走堂下。
長安城連東掖垣， 鳳凰池對青瑣門，
高才脫略名與利， 日夕望君抱琴至。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Qi

ON HEARING DONG PLAY THE FLAGEOLET
A POEM TO PALACE-ATTENDANT FANG

When this melody for the flageolet was made by Lady Cai,
When long ago one by one she sang its eighteen stanzas,
Even the Tartars were shedding tears into the border grasses,
And the envoy of China was heart-broken, turning back home with his escort.
...Cold fires now of old battles are grey on ancient forts,
And the wilderness is shadowed with white new-flying snow.
...When the player first brushes the Shang string and the Jue and then the Yu,
Autumn-leaves in all four quarters are shaken with a murmur.
Dong, the master,
Must have been taught in heaven.
Demons come from the deep pine-wood and stealthily listen
To music slow, then quick, following his hand,
Now far away, now near again, according to his heart.
A hundred birds from an empty mountain scatter and return;
Three thousand miles of floating clouds darken and lighten;
A wildgoose fledgling, left behind, cries for its flock,
And a Tartar child for the mother he loves.
Then river waves are calmed
And birds are mute that were singing,
And Wuzu tribes are homesick for their distant land,
And out of the dust of Siberian steppes rises a plaintive sorrow.
...Suddenly the low sound leaps to a freer tune,
Like a long wind swaying a forest, a downpour breaking tiles,
A cascade through the air, flying over tree-tops.
...A wild deer calls to his fellows. He is running among the mansions
In the corner of the capital by the Eastern Palace wall....
Phoenix Lake lies opposite the Gate of Green Jade;
But how can fame and profit concern a man of genius?
Day and night I long for him to bring his lute again.

051

七言古詩

李頎

聽安萬善吹觱篥歌

南山截竹為觱篥， 此樂本自龜茲出。
流傳漢地曲轉奇， 涼州胡人為我吹；
傍鄰聞者多歎息， 遠客思鄉皆淚垂。
世人解聽不解賞， 長飆風中自來往。
枯桑老柏寒颼飀， 九雛鳴鳳亂啾啾。
龍吟虎嘯一時發， 萬籟百泉相與秋。
忽然更作漁陽摻， 黃雲蕭條白日暗。
變調如聞楊柳春， 上林繁花照眼新。
歲夜高堂列明燭， 美酒一杯聲一曲。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Qi

ON HEARING AN WANSHAN PLAY THE REED-PIPE

Bamboo from the southern hills was used to make this pipe.
And its music, that was introduced from Persia first of all,
Has taken on new magic through later use in China.
And now the Tartar from Liangzhou, blowing it for me,
Drawing a sigh from whosoever hears it,
Is bringing to a wanderer's eyes homesick tears....
Many like to listen; but few understand.
To and fro at will there's a long wind flying,
Dry mulberry-trees, old cypresses, trembling in its chill.
There are nine baby phoenixes, outcrying one another;
A dragon and a tiger spring up at the same moment;
Then in a hundred waterfalls ten thousand songs of autumn
Are suddenly changing to The Yuyang Lament;
And when yellow clouds grow thin and the white sun darkens,
They are changing still again to Spring in the Willow Trees.
Like Imperial Garden flowers, brightening the eye with beauty,
Are the high-hall candles we have lighted this cold night,
And with every cup of wine goes another round of music.

052

七言古詩

孟浩然

夜歸鹿門山歌

山寺鐘鳴晝已昏， 漁梁渡頭爭渡喧；
人隨沙路向江村， 余亦乘舟歸鹿門。
鹿門月照開煙樹， 忽到龐公棲隱處；
巖扉松徑長寂寥， 惟有幽人自來去。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Meng Haoran

RETURNING AT NIGHT TO LUMEN MOUNTAIN

A bell in the mountain-temple sounds the coming of night.
I hear people at the fishing-town stumble aboard the ferry,
While others follow the sand-bank to their homes along the river.
...I also take a boat and am bound for Lumen Mountain --
And soon the Lumen moonlight is piercing misty trees.
I have come, before I know it, upon an ancient hermitage,
The thatch door, the piney path, the solitude, the quiet,
Where a hermit lives and moves, never needing a companion.

053

七言古詩

李白

廬山謠寄盧侍御虛舟

我本楚狂人， 鳳歌笑孔丘。
手持綠玉杖， 朝別黃鶴樓；
五嶽尋仙不辭遠， 一生好入名山遊。
廬山秀出南斗傍， 屏風九疊雲錦張；
影落明湖青黛光， 金闕前開二峰長。
銀河倒挂三石梁， 香爐瀑布遙相望。
迴崖沓障淩蒼蒼， 翠影紅霞映朝日，
鳥飛不到吳天長。
登高壯觀天地間， 大江茫茫去不黃。
黃雲萬里動風色， 白波九道流雪山。
好為廬山謠， 興因廬山發。
閑窺石鏡清我心， 謝公行處蒼苔沒。
早服還丹無世情， 琴心三疊道初成；
遙見仙人彩雲裡， 手把芙蓉朝玉京。
先期汗漫九垓上， 願接盧敖遊太清。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Bai

A SONG OF LU MOUNTAIN TO CENSOR LU XUZHOU

I am the madman of the Chu country
Who sang a mad song disputing Confucius.
...Holding in my hand a staff of green jade,
I have crossed, since morning at the Yellow Crane Terrace,
All five Holy Mountains, without a thought of distance,
According to the one constant habit of my life.
Lu Mountain stands beside the Southern Dipper
In clouds reaching silken like a nine-panelled screen,
With its shadows in a crystal lake deepening the green water.
The Golden Gate opens into two mountain-ranges.
A silver stream is hanging down to three stone bridges
Within sight of the mighty Tripod Falls.
Ledges of cliff and winding trails lead to blue sky
And a flush of cloud in the morning sun,
Whence no flight of birds could be blown into Wu.
...I climb to the top. I survey the whole world.
I see the long river that runs beyond return,
Yellow clouds that winds have driven hundreds of miles
And a snow-peak whitely circled by the swirl of a ninefold stream.
And so I am singing a song of Lu Mountain,
A song that is born of the breath of Lu Mountain.
...Where the Stone Mirror makes the heart's purity purer
And green moss has buried the footsteps of Xie,
I have eaten the immortal pellet and, rid of the world's troubles,
Before the lute's third playing have achieved my element.
Far away I watch the angels riding coloured clouds
Toward heaven's Jade City, with hibiscus in their hands.
And so, when I have traversed the nine sections of the world,
I will follow Saint Luao up the Great Purity.

054

七言古詩

李白

夢遊天姥吟留別

海客談瀛洲， 煙濤微茫信難求。
越人語天姥， 雲霓明滅或可睹。
天姥連天向天橫， 勢拔五嶽掩赤城；
天臺四萬八千丈， 對此欲倒東南傾。
我欲因之夢吳越， 一夜飛渡鏡湖月。
湖月照我影， 送我至剡溪；
謝公宿處今尚在， 淥水蕩漾清猿啼。
腳著謝公屐， 身登青雲梯。
半壁見海日， 空中聞天雞。
千巖萬壑路不定， 迷花倚石忽已暝。
熊咆龍吟殷巖泉， 慄深林兮驚層巔。
雲青青兮欲雨， 水澹澹兮生煙。
列缺霹靂， 邱巒崩摧，
洞天石扇， 訇然中開；
青冥浩蕩不見底， 日月照耀金銀臺。
霓為衣兮風為馬， 雲之君兮紛紛而來下；
虎鼓瑟兮鸞回車。 仙之人兮列如麻。
忽魂悸以魄動， 怳驚起而長嗟。
惟覺時之枕席， 失向來之煙霞。
世間行樂亦如此， 古來萬事東流水。
別君去兮何時還？ 且放白鹿青崖間。
須行即騎訪名山， 安能摧眉折腰事權貴，
使我不得開心顏？

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Bai

TIANMU MOUNTAIN ASCENDED IN A DREAM

A seafaring visitor will talk about Japan,
Which waters and mists conceal beyond approach;
But Yueh people talk about Heavenly Mother Mountain,
Still seen through its varying deeps of cloud.
In a straight line to heaven, its summit enters heaven,
Tops the five Holy Peaks, and casts a shadow through China
With the hundred-mile length of the Heavenly Terrace Range,
Which, just at this point, begins turning southeast.
...My heart and my dreams are in Wu and Yueh
And they cross Mirror Lake all night in the moon.
And the moon lights my shadow
And me to Yan River --
With the hermitage of Xie still there
And the monkeys calling clearly over ripples of green water.
I wear his pegged boots
Up a ladder of blue cloud,
Sunny ocean half-way,
Holy cock-crow in space,
Myriad peaks and more valleys and nowhere a road.
Flowers lure me, rocks ease me. Day suddenly ends.
Bears, dragons, tempestuous on mountain and river,
Startle the forest and make the heights tremble.
Clouds darken with darkness of rain,
Streams pale with pallor of mist.
The Gods of Thunder and Lightning
Shatter the whole range.
The stone gate breaks asunder
Venting in the pit of heaven,
An impenetrable shadow.
...But now the sun and moon illumine a gold and silver terrace,
And, clad in rainbow garments, riding on the wind,
Come the queens of all the clouds, descending one by one,
With tigers for their lute-players and phoenixes for dancers.
Row upon row, like fields of hemp, range the fairy figures.
I move, my soul goes flying,
I wake with a long sigh,
My pillow and my matting
Are the lost clouds I was in.
...And this is the way it always is with human joy:
Ten thousand things run for ever like water toward the east.
And so I take my leave of you, not knowing for how long.
...But let me, on my green slope, raise a white deer
And ride to you, great mountain, when I have need of you.
Oh, how can I gravely bow and scrape to men of high rank and men of high office
Who never will suffer being shown an honest-hearted face!

055

七言古詩

李白

金陵酒肆留別

風吹柳花滿店香， 吳姬壓酒喚客嘗；
金陵子弟來相送， 欲行不行各盡觴。
請君試問東流水， 別意與之誰短長？

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Bai

PARTING AT A WINE-SHOP IN NANJING

A wind, bringing willow-cotton, sweetens the shop,
And a girl from Wu, pouring wine, urges me to share it
With my comrades of the city who are here to see me off;
And as each of them drains his cup, I say to him in parting,
Oh, go and ask this river running to the east
If it can travel farther than a friend's love!

056

七言古詩

李白

宣州謝朓樓餞別校書叔雲

棄我去者， 昨日之日不可留；
亂我心者， 今日之日多煩憂。
長風萬里送秋雁， 對此可以酣高樓。
蓬萊文章建安骨， 中間小謝又清發，
俱懷逸興壯思飛， 欲上青天覽明月。
抽刀斷水水更流， 舉杯銷愁愁更愁。
人生在世不稱意， 明朝散髮弄扁舟。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Bai

A FAREWELL TO SECRETARY SHUYUN
AT THE XIETIAO VILLA IN XUANZHOU

Since yesterday had to throw me and bolt,
Today has hurt my heart even more.
The autumn wildgeese have a long wind for escort
As I face them from this villa, drinking my wine.
The bones of great writers are your brushes, in the School of Heaven,
And I am a Lesser Xie growing up by your side.
We both are exalted to distant thought,
Aspiring to the sky and the bright moon.
But since water still flows, though we cut it with our swords,
And sorrows return, though we drown them with wine,
Since the world can in no way answer our craving,
I will loosen my hair tomorrow and take to a fishingboat.

057

七言古詩

岑參

走馬川行奉送封大夫出師西征

君不見走馬川行雪海邊， 平沙莽莽黃入天。
輪臺九月風夜吼， 一川碎石大如斗，
隨風滿地石亂走。 匈奴草黃馬正肥，
金山西見煙塵飛， 漢家大將西出師。
將軍金甲夜不脫， 半夜軍行戈相撥，
風頭如刀面如割。 馬毛帶雪汗氣蒸，
五花連錢旋作冰， 幕中草檄硯水凝。
虜騎聞之應膽懾， 料知短兵不敢接，
車師西門佇獻捷。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Cen Can

A SONG OF RUNNING-HORSE RIVER IN FAREWELL
TO GENERAL FENG OF THE WESTERN EXPEDITION

Look how swift to the snowy sea races Running-Horse River! --
And sand, up from the desert, flies yellow into heaven.
This Ninth-month night is blowing cold at Wheel Tower,
And valleys, like peck measures, fill with the broken boulders
That downward, headlong, follow the wind.
...In spite of grey grasses, Tartar horses are plump;
West of the Hill of Gold, smoke and dust gather.
O General of the Chinese troops, start your campaign!
Keep your iron armour on all night long,
Send your soldiers forward with a clattering of weapons!
...While the sharp wind's point cuts the face like a knife,
And snowy sweat steams on the horses' backs,
Freezing a pattern of five-flower coins,
Your challenge from camp, from an inkstand of ice,
Has chilled the barbarian chieftain's heart.
You will have no more need of an actual battle! --
We await the news of victory, here at the western pass!

058

七言古詩

岑參

輪臺歌奉送封大夫出師西征

輪臺城頭夜吹角， 輪臺城北旄頭落。
羽書昨夜過渠黎， 單于已在金山西。
戍樓西望煙塵黑， 漢兵屯在輪臺北。
上將擁旄西出征， 平明吹笛大軍行。
四邊伐鼓雪海湧， 三軍大呼陰山動。
虜塞兵氣連雲屯， 戰場白骨纏草根。
劍河風急雪片闊， 沙口石凍馬蹄脫。
亞相勤王甘苦辛， 誓將報主靜邊塵。
古來青史誰不見？ 今見功名勝古人。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Cen Can

A SONG OF WHEEL TOWER IN FAREWELL TO GENERAL
FENG OF THE WESTERN EXPEDITION

On Wheel Tower parapets night-bugles are blowing,
Though the flag at the northern end hangs limp.
Scouts, in the darkness, are passing Quli,
Where, west of the Hill of Gold, the Tartar chieftain has halted
We can see, from the look-out, the dust and black smoke
Where Chinese troops are camping, north of Wheel Tower.
...Our flags now beckon the General farther west-
With bugles in the dawn he rouses his Grand Army;
Drums like a tempest pound on four sides
And the Yin Mountains shake with the shouts of ten thousand;
Clouds and the war-wind whirl up in a point
Over fields where grass-roots will tighten around white bones;
In the Dagger River mist, through a biting wind,
Horseshoes, at the Sand Mouth line, break on icy boulders.
...Our General endures every pain, every hardship,
Commanded to settle the dust along the border.
We have read, in the Green Books, tales of old days-
But here we behold a living man, mightier than the dead.

059

七言古詩

岑參

白雪歌送武判官歸京

北風捲地白草折， 胡天八月即飛雪；
忽如一夜春風來， 千樹萬樹梨花開。
散入珠簾濕羅幕， 狐裘不煖錦衾薄。
將軍角弓不得控， 都護鐵衣冷猶著。
瀚海闌干百丈冰， 愁雲黲淡萬里凝。
中軍置酒飲歸客， 胡琴琵琶與羌笛。
紛紛暮雪下轅門， 風掣紅旗凍不翻。
輪臺東門送君去， 去時雪滿天山路；
山迴路轉不見君， 雪上空留馬行處。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Cen Can

A SONG OF WHITE SNOW IN FAREWELL
TO FIELD-CLERK WU GOING HOME

The north wind rolls the white grasses and breaks them;
And the Eighth-month snow across the Tartar sky
Is like a spring gale, come up in the night,
Blowing open the petals of ten thousand peartrees.
It enters the pearl blinds, it wets the silk curtains;
A fur coat feels cold, a cotton mat flimsy;
Bows become rigid, can hardly be drawn
And the metal of armour congeals on the men;
The sand-sea deepens with fathomless ice,
And darkness masses its endless clouds;
But we drink to our guest bound home from camp,
And play him barbarian lutes, guitars, harps;
Till at dusk, when the drifts are crushing our tents
And our frozen red flags cannot flutter in the wind,
We watch him through Wheel-Tower Gate going eastward.
Into the snow-mounds of Heaven-Peak Road....
And then he disappears at the turn of the pass,
Leaving behind him only hoof-prints.

060

七言古詩

杜甫

韋諷錄事宅觀曹將軍畫馬圖

國初以來畫鞍馬， 神妙獨數江都王。
將軍得名三十載， 人間又見真乘黃。
曾貌先帝照夜白， 龍池十日飛霹靂，
內府殷紅瑪瑙盤， 婕妤傳詔才人索。
盤賜將軍拜舞歸， 輕紈細綺相追飛；
貴戚權門得筆跡， 始覺屏障生光輝。
昔日太宗拳毛騧， 近時郭家獅子花。
今之新圖有二馬， 復令識者久歎嗟，
此皆騎戰一敵萬， 縞素漠漠開風沙。
其餘七匹亦殊絕， 迥若寒空雜煙雪；
霜蹄蹴踏長楸間， 馬官廝養森成列。
可憐九馬爭神駿， 顧視清高氣深穩。
借問苦心愛者誰？ 後有韋諷前支盾。
憶昔巡幸新豐宮， 翠花拂天來向東；
騰驤磊落三萬匹， 皆與此圖筋骨同。
自從獻寶朝河宗， 無復射蛟江水中。
君不見， 金粟堆前松柏裡，
龍媒去盡鳥呼風。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

A DRAWING OF A HORSE BY GENERAL CAO
AT SECRETARY WEI FENG'S HOUSE

Throughout this dynasty no one had painted horses
Like the master-spirit, Prince Jiangdu --
And then to General Cao through his thirty years of fame
The world's gaze turned, for royal steeds.
He painted the late Emperor's luminous white horse.
For ten days the thunder flew over Dragon Lake,
And a pink-agate plate was sent him from the palace-
The talk of the court-ladies, the marvel of all eyes.
The General danced, receiving it in his honoured home
After this rare gift, followed rapidly fine silks
From many of the nobles, requesting that his art
Lend a new lustre to their screens.
...First came the curly-maned horse of Emperor Taizong,
Then, for the Guos, a lion-spotted horse....
But now in this painting I see two horses,
A sobering sight for whosoever knew them.
They are war- horses. Either could face ten thousand.
They make the white silk stretch away into a vast desert.
And the seven others with them are almost as noble
Mist and snow are moving across a cold sky,
And hoofs are cleaving snow-drifts under great trees-
With here a group of officers and there a group of servants.
See how these nine horses all vie with one another-
The high clear glance, the deep firm breath.
...Who understands distinction? Who really cares for art?
You, Wei Feng, have followed Cao; Zhidun preceded him.
...I remember when the late Emperor came toward his Summer Palace,
The procession, in green-feathered rows, swept from the eastern sky --
Thirty thousand horses, prancing, galloping,
Fashioned, every one of them, like the horses in this picture....
But now the Imperial Ghost receives secret jade from the River God,
For the Emperor hunts crocodiles no longer by the streams.
Where you see his Great Gold Tomb, you may hear among the pines
A bird grieving in the wind that the Emperor's horses are gone.

061

七言古詩

杜甫

丹青引贈曹霸將軍

將軍魏武之子孫， 於今為庶為青門；
英雄割據雖已矣！ 文采風流今尚存。
學書初學衛夫人， 但恨無過王右軍。
丹青不知老將至， 富貴於我如浮雲。
開元之中常引見， 承恩數上南熏殿，
凌煙功臣少顏色， 將軍下筆開生面。
良相頭上進賢冠， 猛將腰間大羽箭。
褒公鄂公毛髮動， 英姿颯爽猶酣戰。
先帝天馬玉花驄， 畫工如山貌不同。
是日牽來赤墀下， 迥立閶闔生長風。
詔謂將軍拂絹素， 意匠慘淡經營中；
斯須九重真龍出， 一洗萬古凡馬空。
玉花卻在御榻上， 榻上庭前屹相向；
至尊含笑催賜金， 圉人太僕皆惆悵，
弟子韓幹早入室， 亦能畫馬窮殊相；
幹惟畫肉不畫骨， 忍使驊騮氣凋喪。
將軍畫善蓋有神， 偶逢佳士亦寫真；
即今漂泊干戈際， 屢貌尋常行路人。
塗窮反遭俗眼白， 世上未有如公貧；
但看古來盛名下， 終日坎壈纏其身。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

A SONG OF A PAINTING TO GENERAL CAO

O General, descended from Wei's Emperor Wu,
You are nobler now than when a noble....
Conquerors and their valour perish,
But masters of beauty live forever.
...With your brush-work learned from Lady Wei
And second only to Wang Xizhi's,
Faithful to your art, you know no age,
Letting wealth and fame drift by like clouds.
...In the years of Kaiyuan you were much with the Emperor,
Accompanied him often to the Court of the South Wind.
When the spirit left great statesmen, on walls of the Hall of Fame
The point of your brush preserved their living faces.
You crowned all the premiers with coronets of office;
You fitted all commanders with arrows at their girdles;
You made the founders of this dynasty, with every hair alive,
Seem to be just back from the fierceness of a battle.
...The late Emperor had a horse, known as Jade Flower,
Whom artists had copied in various poses.
They led him one day to the red marble stairs
With his eyes toward the palace in the deepening air.
Then, General, commanded to proceed with your work,
You centred all your being on a piece of silk.
And later, when your dragon-horse, born of the sky,
Had banished earthly horses for ten thousand generations,
There was one Jade Flower standing on the dais
And another by the steps, and they marvelled at each other....
The Emperor rewarded you with smiles and with gifts,
While officers and men of the stud hung about and stared.
...Han Gan, your follower, has likewise grown proficient
At representing horses in all their attitudes;
But picturing the flesh, he fails to draw the bone-
So that even the finest are deprived of their spirit.
You, beyond the mere skill, used your art divinely-
And expressed, not only horses, but the life of a good man....
Yet here you are, wandering in a world of disorder
And sketching from time to time some petty passerby
People note your case with the whites of their eyes.
There's nobody purer, there's nobody poorer.
...Read in the records, from earliest times,
How hard it is to be a great artist.

062

七言古詩

杜甫

寄韓諫議

今我不樂思岳陽， 身欲奮飛病在床。
美人娟娟隔秋水， 濯足洞庭望八荒。
鴻飛冥冥日月白， 青楓葉赤天雨霜。
玉京群帝集北斗， 或騎麒麟翳鳳凰。
芙蓉旌旗煙霧落， 影動倒景搖瀟湘。
星宮之君醉瓊漿， 羽人稀少不在旁。
似聞昨者赤松子， 恐是漢代韓張良；
昔隨劉氏定長安， 帷幄未改神慘傷。
國家成敗吾豈敢？ 色難腥腐餐楓香。
周南留滯古所惜， 南極老人應壽昌。
美人胡為隔秋水？ 焉得置之貢玉堂。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

A LETTER TO CENSOR HAN

I am sad. My thoughts are in Youzhou.
I would hurry there-but I am sick in bed.
...Beauty would be facing me across the autumn waters.
Oh, to wash my feet in Lake Dongting and see at its eight corners
Wildgeese flying high, sun and moon both white,
Green maples changing to red in the frosty sky,
Angels bound for the Capital of Heaven, near the North Star,
Riding, some of them phrenixes, and others unicorns,
With banners of hibiscus and with melodies of mist,
Their shadows dancing upside-down in the southern rivers,
Till the Queen of the Stars, drowsy with her nectar,
Would forget the winged men on either side of her!
...From the Wizard of the Red Pine this word has come for me:
That after his earlier follower he has now a new disciple
Who, formerly at the capital as Emperor Liu's adviser,
In spite of great successes, never could be happy.
...What are a country's rise and fall?
Can flesh-pots be as fragrant as mountain fruit?....
I grieve that he is lost far away in the south.
May the star of long life accord him its blessing!
...O purity, to seize you from beyond the autumn waters
And to place you as an offering in the Court of Imperial Jade.

063

七言古詩

杜甫

古柏行

孔明廟前有老柏， 柯如青銅根如石；
雙皮溜雨四十圍， 黛色參天二千尺。
君臣已與時際會， 樹木猶為人愛惜。
雲來氣接巫峽長， 月出寒通雪山白。
憶昨路繞錦亭東， 先主武侯同閟宮。
崔嵬枝幹郊原古， 窈窕丹青戶牖空。
落落盤踞雖得地， 冥冥孤高多烈風。
扶持自是神明力， 正直元因造化功。
大廈如傾要梁棟， 萬牛迴首丘山重。
不露文章世已驚， 未辭剪伐誰能送？
苦心豈免容螻蟻？ 香葉終經宿鸞鳳。
志士幽人莫怨嗟， 古來材大難為用。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

A SONG OF AN OLD CYPRESS

Beside the Temple of the Great Premier stands an ancient cypress
With a trunk of green bronze and a root of stone.
The girth of its white bark would be the reach of forty men
And its tip of kingfish-blue is two thousand feet in heaven.
Dating from the days of a great ruler's great statesman,
Their very tree is loved now and honoured by the people.
Clouds come to it from far away, from the Wu cliffs,
And the cold moon glistens on its peak of snow.
...East of the Silk Pavilion yesterday I found
The ancient ruler and wise statesman both worshipped in one temple,
Whose tree, with curious branches, ages the whole landscape
In spite of the fresh colours of the windows and the doors.
And so firm is the deep root, so established underground,
That its lone lofty boughs can dare the weight of winds,
Its only protection the Heavenly Power,
Its only endurance the art of its Creator.
Though oxen sway ten thousand heads, they cannot move a mountain.
...When beams are required to restore a great house,
Though a tree writes no memorial, yet people understand
That not unless they fell it can use be made of it....
Its bitter heart may be tenanted now by black and white ants,
But its odorous leaves were once the nest of phoenixes and pheasants.
...Let wise and hopeful men harbour no complaint.
The greater the timber, the tougher it is to use.

064

七言古詩

杜甫

觀公孫大娘弟子舞劍器行并序

昔有佳人公孫氏， 一舞劍器動四方。
觀者如山色沮喪， 天地為之久低昂。
霍如羿射九日落， 矯如群帝驂龍翔，
來如雷霆收震怒， 罷如江海凝清光。
絳唇珠袖兩寂寞， 晚有弟子傳芬芳。
臨潁美人在白帝， 妙舞此曲神揚揚。
與余問答既有以， 感時撫事增惋傷。
先帝侍女八千人， 公孫劍器初第一。
五十年間似反掌， 風塵澒洞昏王室。
梨園子弟散如煙， 女樂餘姿映寒日。
金粟堆前木已拱， 瞿塘石城草蕭瑟。
玳筵急管曲復終， 樂極哀來月東出。
老夫不知其所往？ 足繭荒山轉愁疾。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

A SONG OF DAGGER-DANCING TO A GIRL-PUPIL
OF LADY GONGSUN

There lived years ago the beautiful Gongsun,
Who, dancing with her dagger, drew from all four quarters
An audience like mountains lost among themselves.
Heaven and earth moved back and forth, following her motions,
Which were bright as when the Archer shot the nine suns down the sky
And rapid as angels before the wings of dragons.
She began like a thunderbolt, venting its anger,
And ended like the shining calm of rivers and the sea....
But vanished are those red lips and those pearly sleeves;
And none but this one pupil bears the perfume of her fame,
This beauty from Lingying, at the Town of the White God,
Dancing still and singing in the old blithe way.
And while we reply to each other's questions,
We sigh together, saddened by changes that have come.
There were eight thousand ladies in the late Emperor's court,
But none could dance the dagger-dance like Lady Gongsun.
...Fifty years have passed, like the turning of a palm;
Wind and dust, filling the world, obscure the Imperial House.
Instead of the Pear-Garden Players, who have blown by like a mist,
There are one or two girl-musicians now-trying to charm the cold Sun.
There are man-size trees by the Emperor's Golden Tomb
I seem to hear dead grasses rattling on the cliffs of Qutang.
...The song is done, the slow string and quick pipe have ceased.
At the height of joy, sorrow comes with the eastern moon rising.
And I, a poor old man, not knowing where to go,
Must harden my feet on the lone hills, toward sickness and despair.

065

七言古詩

元結

石魚湖上醉歌并序

石魚湖， 似洞庭，
夏水欲滿君山青。
山為樽， 水為沼，
酒徒歷歷坐洲鳥。
長風連日作大浪， 不能廢人運酒舫。
我持長瓢坐巴丘， 酌飲四座以散愁。

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Yuan Jie

A DRINKING SONG AT STONE-FISH LAKE

Stone-Fish Lake is like Lake Dongting --
When the top of Zun is green and the summer tide is rising.
...With the mountain for a table, and the lake a fount of wine,
The tipplers all are settled along the sandy shore.
Though a stiff wind for days has roughened the water,
Wine-boats constantly arrive....
I have a long-necked gourd and, happy on Ba Island,
I am pouring a drink in every direction doing away with care.

066

七言古詩

韓愈

山石

山石犖确行徑微， 黃昏到寺蝙蝠飛。
升堂坐階新雨足， 芭蕉葉大梔子肥。
僧言古壁佛畫好， 以火來照所見稀。
鋪床拂席置羹飯， 疏糲亦足飽我飢。
夜深靜臥百蟲絕， 清月出嶺光入扉。
天明獨去無道路， 出入高下窮煙霏。
山紅澗碧紛爛漫， 時見松櫪皆十圍。
當流赤足蹋澗石， 水聲激激風吹衣。
人生如此自可樂， 豈必局束為人鞿？
嗟哉吾黨二三子， 安得至老不更歸？

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Han Yu

MOUNTAIN-STONES

Rough were the mountain-stones, and the path very narrow;
And when I reached the temple, bats were in the dusk.
I climbed to the hall, sat on the steps, and drank the rain- washed air
Among the round gardenia-pods and huge bananaleaves.
On the old wall, said the priest, were Buddhas finely painted,
And he brought a light and showed me, and I called them wonderful
He spread the bed, dusted the mats, and made my supper ready,
And, though the food was coarse, it satisfied my hunger.
At midnight, while I lay there not hearing even an insect,
The mountain moon with her pure light entered my door....
At dawn I left the mountain and, alone, lost my way:
In and out, up and down, while a heavy mist
Made brook and mountain green and purple, brightening everything.
I am passing sometimes pines and oaks, which ten men could not girdle,
I am treading pebbles barefoot in swift-running water --
Its ripples purify my ear, while a soft wind blows my garments....
These are the things which, in themselves, make life happy.
Why should we be hemmed about and hampered with people?
O chosen pupils, far behind me in my own country,
What if I spent my old age here and never went back home?

067

七言古詩

韓愈

八月十五夜贈張功曹

纖雲四捲天無河， 清風吹空月舒波。
沙平水息聲影絕， 一杯相屬君當歌。
君歌聲酸辭且苦， 不能聽終淚如雨。
洞庭連天九疑高， 蛟龍出沒猩鼯號。
十生九死到官所， 幽居默默如藏逃。
下床畏蛇食畏藥， 海氣濕蟄熏腥臊。
昨者州前槌大鼓， 嗣皇繼聖登夔皋。
赦書一日行萬里， 罪從大辟皆除死。
遷者追回流者還， 滌瑕蕩垢清朝班。
州家申名使家抑， 坎軻祇得移荊蠻。
判司卑官不堪說， 未免捶楚塵埃間。
同時輩流多上道， 天路幽險難追攀。
君歌且休聽我歌， 我歌今與君殊科。
一年明月今宵多， 人生由命非由他；
有酒不飲奈明何？

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Han Yu

ON THE FESTIVAL OF THE MOON
TO SUB-OFFICIAL ZHANG

The fine clouds have opened and the River of Stars is gone,
A clear wind blows across the sky, and the moon widens its wave,
The sand is smooth, the water still, no sound and no shadow,
As I offer you a cup of wine, asking you to sing.
But so sad is this song of yours and so bitter your voice
That before I finish listening my tears have become a rain:
"Where Lake Dongting is joined to the sky by the lofty Nine-Doubt Mountain,
Dragons, crocodiles, rise and sink, apes, flying foxes, whimper....
At a ten to one risk of death, I have reached my official post,
Where lonely I live and hushed, as though I were in hiding.
I leave my bed, afraid of snakes; I eat, fearing poisons;
The air of the lake is putrid, breathing its evil odours....
Yesterday, by the district office, the great drum was announcing
The crowning of an emperor, a change in the realm.
The edict granting pardons runs three hundred miles a day,
All those who were to die have had their sentences commuted,
The unseated are promoted and exiles are recalled,
Corruptions are abolished, clean officers appointed.
My superior sent my name in but the governor would not listen
And has only transferred me to this barbaric place.
My rank is very low and useless to refer to;
They might punish me with lashes in the dust of the street.
Most of my fellow exiles are now returning home --
A journey which, to me, is a heaven beyond climbing."
...Stop your song, I beg you, and listen to mine,
A song that is utterly different from yours:
"Tonight is the loveliest moon of the year.
All else is with fate, not ours to control;
But, refusing this wine, may we choose more tomorrow?"

068

七言古詩

韓愈

謁衡嶽廟遂宿嶽寺題門樓

五嶽祭秩皆三公， 四方環鎮嵩當中。
火維地荒足妖怪， 天假神柄專其雄。
噴雲泄霧藏半腹， 雖有絕頂誰能窮？
我來正逢秋雨節， 陰氣晦昧無清風。
潛心默禱若有應， 豈非正直能感通？
須臾靜掃眾峰出， 仰見突兀撐青空。
紫蓋連延接天柱， 石廩騰擲堆祝融。
森然魄動下馬拜， 松柏一逕趨靈宮。
紛牆丹柱動光彩， 鬼物圖畫填青紅。
升階傴僂薦脯酒， 欲以菲薄明其衷。
廟內老人識神意， 睢盱偵伺能鞠躬。
手持盃珓導我擲， 云此最吉餘難同。
竄逐蠻荒幸不死， 衣食纔足甘長終。
侯王將相望久絕， 神縱欲福難為功。
夜投佛寺上高閣， 星月掩映雲曈曨。
猿鳴鐘動不知曙， 杲杲寒日生於東。

Seven-character-quatrain

Han Yu

STOPPING AT A TEMPLE ON HENG MOUNTAIN I
INSCRIBE THIS POEM IN THE GATE-TOWER

The five Holy Mountains have the rank of the Three Dukes.
The other four make a ring, with the Song Mountain midmost.
To this one, in the fire-ruled south, where evil signs are rife,
Heaven gave divine power, ordaining it a peer.
All the clouds and hazes are hidden in its girdle;
And its forehead is beholden only by a few.
...I came here in autumn, during the rainy season,
When the sky was overcast and the clear wind gone.
I quieted my mind and prayed, hoping for an answer;
For assuredly righteous thinking reaches to high heaven.
And soon all the mountain-peaks were showing me their faces;
I looked up at a pinnacle that held the clean blue sky:
The wide Purple-Canopy joined the Celestial Column;
The Stone Granary leapt, while the Fire God stood still.
Moved by this token, I dismounted to offer thanks.
A long path of pine and cypress led to the temple.
Its white walls and purple pillars shone, and the vivid colour
Of gods and devils filled the place with patterns of red and blue.
I climbed the steps and, bending down to sacrifice, besought
That my pure heart might be welcome, in spite of my humble offering.
The old priest professed to know the judgment of the God:
He was polite and reverent, making many bows.
He handed me divinity-cups, he showed me how to use them
And told me that my fortune was the very best of all.
Though exiled to a barbarous land, mine is a happy life.
Plain food and plain clothes are all I ever wanted.
To be prince, duke, premier, general, was never my desire;
And if the God would bless me, what better could he grant than this ? --
At night I lie down to sleep in the top of a high tower;
While moon and stars glimmer through the darkness of the clouds....
Apes call, a bell sounds. And ready for dawn
I see arise, far in the east the cold bright sun.

069