Chinese mythology, folktales, and literature
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— Li Shangyin High, you can’t eat your fill; In vain you wail and trill. At dawn you hush your song; The tree is green for long. I drift as water flows; And waste my garden grows. Thank you for warning due, I am as poor as you.
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— Li Shangyin The guest has left my tower high, My garden flowers pell-mell fly. Here and there over the winding way They say goodbye to parting day. I won’t sweep them with broken heart, But wish they would not fall apart. Their love with spring won’t disappear, Each dewdrop turns into a tear.
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— Li Shangyin Having caressed the dancers in the vernal breeze, You’re ravished amid the merry-making trees. How can you wail until clear autumn days are done To shrill like poor cicadas in the setting sun?
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— Luo Yin Do not complain of golden cage and wings cut short; The southern land is far warmer than the northwest. Don’t clearly speak if you listen to my exhort; You will offend if clearly your complaint’s expressed.
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— Luo Yin Don’t try to make the muddy Yellow River clean! Could Heaven mirrored in the waves be clearly seen? How could a winding stream go up the Milky Way? Just out of Mount Kunlun, it is muddy like clay. In vain the emperor swore to narrow it down; Could a raft reach…
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— Luo Yin You grow around a tree with a name bright, You cling together steeped in autumn light. If your flowers could be stored up like gold, The rich would pluck you down since days of old.
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— Luo Yin By riverside you see lovers part on fine day; They cling together but they cannot make spring stay. Your catkins waft in the breeze when your branches sway, Could you retain those who are going far away?
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— Luo Yin On the plain or atop the hill, Of beauty you enjoy your fill. You gather honey from flowers sweet. For whom are you busy and fleet?
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— Lu Guimeng White lotus blooms are often outweighed by red flowers; They’d rather be transplanted before lunar bowers. Heartless they seem, but they have deep grief no one knows. See them fall in moonlight when the morning wind blows.