江南曲 李益

江南曲   李益 (748-827)

嫁得瞿塘賈，朝朝誤妾期。

早知潮有信，嫁與弄潮兒。

A Song of the River South      Li Yi (748-827)

Since tying her knots with a Qu Tang trading mogul,

He never keeps his promised homecoming schedule,

She should have known even tides have a fixed timetable,

Why hasn’t she married a man who works according to the tidal spells.

已涼 韓翎

已涼   韓翎(唐)

碧闌干外繡帘垂，猩色屏風畫折枝。

八尺龍須方錦褥，已涼天氣未寒時。

Getting Cool     Han Ling (Tang Poet) 

Beyond the green balustrades hang embroidery portieres,

Painted on the scarlet panel is a spray of a blow

On the bed lays an eight foot knitted straw mattress, on it also a square brocade pall,

That’s when it is getting cool but not yet imbued with the chills.

春宮曲 王昌齡

春宮曲    王昌齡 (698-756)

昨夜風開露井桃，未央前殿月輪高。

平陽歌舞新承寵，帘外春寒賜錦袍。

A Spring Serenade in the Palace        Wang Changling (698-756)

Last night the vernal zephyr urged the peach blossoms beside the Dews Well to blow,

The bright moon over the front hall of the Interminable Palace effulgently dangled,

At Princess Ping Yang’s house the singing and dancing diva won the favour of His Lord Imperial,

She was bestowed with a brocade robe amidst the spring chills outside the portieres.

金陵圖 韋莊

金陵圖    韋莊(836-910)

江雨霏霏江草齊，六朝如夢鳥空啼。

無情最是台城柳，依舊煙籠十里堤。

A Snapshot of Jin Ling      Wei Zhuang (836-910)

Over the rank grasses of the river incessantly splashes a thick mizzle,

The stories of the Six Dynasties passed like dream cameos leaving only birds inanely warble,
The most callous are the city wall willows,
Along the ten mile embankment brumes shroud as usual.

 

漢宮春 立春 辛棄疾

漢宮春 立春      辛棄疾(1140-1207)
春已歸來，看美人頭上，裊裊春幡。
無端風雨，未肯收盡餘寒。
年時燕子，料今宵、夢到西園。
渾未辨、黃柑薦酒，更傳青韮堆盤。
卻笑東風從此，便薰梅染柳，更沒些閒。
閒時又來，鏡裏轉變朱顏。
清愁不斷，問何人、會解連環？
生怕見、花開花落，朝來塞雁先還。
 Han Gong Chun  The Day Spring Begins       Xin Qiji (1140-1207)
Fluttering colourful silk frills on women’s hair spell spring’s arrival,
But gusty winds and rains are still seeing off the remaining chills,
Still lingering are last year’s swallows,
Tonight when I dream to visit the Imperial Meadow
Being anguished by dismals customary foods and items for the festival are all forgotten as I am muddily foiled,
From today onward the east wind will busily have the plum and willows spangled,
It just won’t let itself idle,
It will find time from the mirror to have your youthful looks swindled,
My chained melancholy is really unbreakable,
Who can have this catena of dismals uncoupled?
What pains me most is to see the flowers blow and go,
In a trice spring will come to a close,
One morning the northbound wild geese will leave before I return to the north myself.

祝英台令 晚春 辛棄疾

祝英台令 晚春   辛棄疾 (1140-1207)
寶釵分，桃葉渡，煙柳暗南浦。
怕上層樓，十日九風雨。
斷腸片片飛紅，都無人管，倩誰喚、流鶯聲住？
鬢邊覷，試把花卜歸期，才簪又重數。
羅帳燈昏，嗚咽夢中語：
是他春帶愁來，春歸何處？卻不解、將愁歸去！

Zhu Ting Tai Ling     Late Spring        Xin Qiji (1140-1207)

Splitting the hair pin jewel,

Here we part we’ll keep it as memento,
With gloomy mists shrouding the willows,
Mounting towers I am indisposed,
Days are mostly storm hassled,
Bruising are the flittering fallen flower petals,
Over them nobody can control,
Whoever can snuffle the twittering orioles?
Looking carefully at the flowers adorning her temples,
She tries to count the number of flower petals to have his date of return foreboded,
Putting the flowers on again and again and count the petals over and over,
Inside the dimly lit portieres of her boudoir,
She dreams and sniffles,
Accusing you bring spring back with all its melancholy and dismals,
Leaving them for her disposal,
At her they just keep their gnaw,
Whosoever could she have them settled,
How cruel! How cruel!

 

 

籌筆驛 李商隱

籌筆驛     李商隱 (813-858)

猿鳥猶疑畏簡書，風雲常為護儲胥。

徒令上將揮神筆，終見降王走傳車。

管樂有才原不忝，關張無命欲何如。

他年錦里經祠廟，梁父吟成恨有餘。

The Expeditionary Campaign Planning Station    
Li Shangyin (813-858)
Even now the apes and birds here hold the Chancellor’s Proclamation of Expedition with awe,
The winds and clouds are still carefully guarding the barricades of the citadel,
The great statesman general had just inanely wasted his efforts with his mighty brush writing tool,
Everything eventually came down to the Second Ruler of Shu went surrendering on his heels,
The great Chancellor would have measured up to the abilities of Guan Zhong and Le Yi by any scale,
But Generals Guan and Zhang had no blessings whatsoever Providential,
If somehow by chance I pass the Shu Chancellor Temple,
In chanting his famous “The Song of Liang Fu” I’ll be plagued by unrenting dismals.

蘇武廟 溫庭筠

蘇武廟     溫庭筠 (812-870)

蘇武魂銷漢使前，古祠高樹兩茫然。

雲邊雁斷胡天月，隴上羊歸塞草煙。

回日樓台非甲帳，去時冠劍是丁年。

茂陵不見封侯印，空向秋波哭逝川。

The Temple of Su Wu The Han Envoy to the Huns

Wen Tingjun (812-870)

Before he was sent as envoy to the Huns Su Wu had already prepared for a mission sacrificial,
Now his ancient temple and the tall trees seem standing desolately lost in dismals,
The tribulations he endured there left him completely cut off with the Han Household,
He couldn’t even see any more wild geese files by the clouds but only the moon over the Hun purlieu,
When he took his sheep back from the wilds he could only see the border grasses and mizzles,
He found Emperor Wu had long gone on his recoil,
When sent in his prime on envoy he was donning his youth hat and wearing his sword of battle,
After nineteen years on his return Emperor Wu was already under the sod of the Mao Ling Imperial Tomb,
And he was not honoured by any imperial title,
For the lost time he could only inanely bewail over the vanishing rolling waters in the fall.