Category Archives: Affection

Sparrow’s Ladle - 芄兰

The Sparrow’s Ladle is propped up [by a stick], the lad wears a fine prong. Despite this handsome prong, he cannot know me. He desires to satisfy, but his girdle swings low. Like the Sparrow Ladle’s leaf, the boy wear’s the archer’s thumb ring. Though it is just a pendent thumb ring, He cannot protect me. He claims to fulfill me, But his girdle hangs low.
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The Phoenix Bird Tower - 登金陵凤凰台

Here once on the Phoenix Bird Tower    the phoenix birds came to rest, Now the birds are gone, the tower empty;    only the river flows aimlessly on. Here where the garden of Wu palace bloomed,    the deep grass hides the paths; Where the kings of Chin vaunted their regalia,    is only an old hill. I see the three peaks hang aloft    as though half-dropt [...]
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A Friend Expected - 宿业师山房待丁大不至

Over the chain of giant peaks The great red sun goes down, And in the stealthy floods of night The distant valleys drown.
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A Farewell to Secretary Shu-Yun at the Hsieh T’iao Villa in Hsuan-Chou - 宣州谢楼饯别校书叔云

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 Hsieh growing up by your side. We both are [...]
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The Beautiful Xi Shi - 西施咏

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...
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A poem to a Taoist Hermit on Ch’uan-Chiao Mountain - 寄全椒山中道士

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 [...]
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