Seeing Off My Elder Brother
Seeing Off My Elder Brother
Lu Zhaolin (634-684/686)You’ll travel home through frontier mountain roads
To see the blooms and willows of Chang’än;
But now it’s time we part our hands goodbye,
To gaze in silent sorrow, and journey on.
| Chinese 送二兄人蜀 盧照鄰 關山客子路 花柳帝王城 此中一分手 柑顧憐無聲 | Pronunciation |
Crossing the Yangtze River
Crossing the Yangtze River
Du Shenyan (645-708)Late afternoon, this garden grove, where ancient sorrow roams;
It’s spring, but birds and blossoms too do fill the edge with dread.
Alone, expelled, down south in savage lands, my homeland far—
The Yangtze River water flow shows not its northern tread.
| Chinese 渡湘江 杜審言 遲日園林悲昔遊 今春花鳥作邊愁 獨憐京國人南竄 |
At Yi River, Seeing Off a Friend
In ancient times a troubled king did send,
Along this very spot, a hero bold—
And though those men have drowned in time’s lost flood,
These waters now are just as dark and cold.
| Chinese 於易水送人 駱賓王 此地別燕丹 壯士發衝冠 昔時人已沒 今日水猶寒 | Pronunciation Yú Yì Shuǐ Sòng Rén Luò Bīn wáng Cǐ dì bié yān dān Zhuàng shì fà chōng guān |
As We Travel There Alone
The friends we had, the friends we left
Along the siren streets
A signal past, a thousand thefts
In red light, white light beats
Oh, where can I rest in this hidden town
As wind comes whistling through
In light and dark, as it rains down,
A dancer flails there too
Somewhere she dwells, the chastised nun,
A remnant work of whim
Perhaps it’s one or maybe none
She waits and waits for him
The courtyard halls where beauty haunts
In bellows of burial bells
At night it sleeps its lot of want
Farewell to Meng Haoran
My dear old friend who’s parting West
Beneath the Yellow Towers;
While falling on the Yangzhou lands
Are mists and springtime flowers.
Your orphan boat’s a distant shade,
That sails where blue skies go;
I look upon the water tides—
Until the end they flow.
By Li Bai, tr. from the Chinese by Frank Watson
送孟浩然之廣陵
故人西辭黃鶴樓，
煙花三月下揚州。
孤帆遠影碧空盡，
惟見長江天際流。
李 白
