Author Archives: Arthur Waley
Far away twinkles the Herd-boy Star - 古诗十九首
(From Nineteen Old Poems of the Han)
Far away twinkles the Herd-boy star;
Brightly shines the Lady of the Han River.
Slender, slender she plies her white fingers;
Click, click go the wheels of her spinning loom.
At the end of the day she has not finished her task;
Her bitter tears fall like streaming rain.
The Han River runs shallow and [...]
Fighting South of the Castle - 战城南
They fought south of the Castle,
They died north of the wall.
They died in the moors and were not buried.
Their flesh was the food of crows.
“Tell the crows we are not afraid;
We have died in the moors and cannot be buried.
Crows, how can our bodies escape you?”
The waters flowed deep
And the rushes in the pool were [...]
Tchirek Song - 敕勒歌
Tchirek River
Lies under the Dark Mountains:
Where the sky is like the sides of a tent
Stretched down over the Great Steppe.
The sky is gray, gray:
And the steppe wide, wide:
Over grass that the wind has battered low
Sheep and oxen roam.
Chiang Chin Chiu – Song before Drinking - 将进酒
See the waters of the Yellow River leap down from Heaven,
Roll away to the deep sea and never turn again!
See at the mirror in the High Hall Aged men bewailing white locks
In the morning, threads of silk, In the evening flakes of snow.
Lazy Man’s Song - 咏慵
I have got patronage, but am too lazy to use it;
I have got land, but am too lazy to farm it.
My house leaks; I am too lazy to mend it.
My clothes are torn; I am too lazy to darn them.
I have got wine, but am too lazy to drink;
So it’s just the same as if [...]
Having Climbed to the Topmost Peak of the Incense-Burner Mountain - 登香炉峰顶