So bright a gleam on the foot of my bed –
Could there have been a frost already?
Lifting myself to look, I found that it was moonlight.
Sinking back again, I thought suddenly of home.
In the Quiet Night - 静夜思
Taking Leave of Wang Wei - 留别王维
Slow and reluctant, I have waited
Day after day, till now I must go.
How sweet the road-side flowers might be
If they did not mean good-bye, old friend.
The Lords of the Realm are harsh to us
And men of affairs are not our kind.
I will turn back home, I will say no more,
I will close the gate of my old garden.
The Girl of Ba Speaks - 巴女词
The water of the River Ba is swift like an arrow;
The boat on the River Ba slips away
As if it had wings.
It will travel in ten days three thousand li.
And you are going, my dear -
Ah, how many years before you return?
Peach-Blossom River - 桃花溪
A bridge flies away through a wild mist,
Yet here are the rocks and the fisherman’s boat.
Oh, if only this river of floating peach-petals
Might lead me at last to the mythical cave!
Coming Home - 回乡偶书
I left home young. I return old;
Speaking as then, but with hair grown thin;
And my children, meeting me, do not know me.
They smile and say: “Stranger, where do you come from?”
A Song of Pure Happiness III - 清平调・其三
(Written to Music for Lady Yang)
Lovely now together, his lady and his flowers
Lighten for ever the Emperor’s eye,
As he listens to the sighing of the far spring wind
Where she leans on a railing in the Aloe Pavilion.