Category Archives: Admiration

A Cicada - 蝉

Pure of heart and therefore hungry, All night long you have sung in vain – Oh, this final broken indrawn breath Among the green indifferent trees! Yes, I have gone like a piece of driftwood, I have let my garden fill with weeds…. I bless you for your true advice To live as pure a life as yours.
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Waking From Drunkenness on a Spring Day - 春日醉起言志

“Life in the World is but a big dream; I will not spoil it by any labour or care.” So saying, I was drunk all the day, Lying helpless at the porch in front of my door. When I woke up, I blinked at the garden-lawn; A lonely bird was singing amid the flowers. I asked myself, had the day been [...]
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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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Falling Petals - 落花

Gone is the guest from the Chamber of Rank, And petals, confused in my little garden, Zigzagging down my crooked path, Escort like dancers the setting sun.
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Seeing Li Bai in a Dream I - 梦李白・其一

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 [...]
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A Farm-House on the Wei River - 渭川田家

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 herd-boy.
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