Chinese classical poetry

  • Spring View in Hangzhou [Tang Poems]

    — Bai Juyi Viewed from the Seaside Tower morning clouds look bright; Along the riverbank I tread on fine sand white. The General’s Temple hears roaring nocturnal tide; Spring dwells in the Beauty’s Bower green willow hide. The red sleeves weave brocade broidered with flowers fine; Blue streamers show amid pear blossoms a shop…

  • A Spring Walk by Qiantang Lake [Tang Poems]

    — Bai Juyi West of Jia Pavilion and north of Lonely Hill, Water brims level with the bank and clouds hang low. Disputing for sunny trees, early orioles trill; Pecking vernal mud in, young swallows come and go. A riot of blooms begins to dazzle the eye; Amid short grass the horse hoofs can…

  • Late Spring [Tang Poems]

    — Han Yu The trees and grass know that soon spring will go away; Of red blooms and green leaves they make gorgeous display. But willow catkins and elm pods are so unwise, They wish to be flying snow darkening the skies.

  • Early Spring East of the Capital [Tang Poems]

    — Yang Juyuan The early spring presents to poets a fresh scene: The willow twigs half yellow and half tender green. When the Royal Garden’s covered with blooming flowers, Then it would be the visitors’ busiest hours.

  • Crossing the Lingding Ocean

    – Wen Tianxiang By virtue of the classics, painstakingly I rose to serve my state;Four years of war have passed, with our banners desolate.Our land, torn asunder, drifts like catkins in the gale;My life, adrift and battered, like duckweed in the rain’s assail.At Huangkong Shoal, I sighed for the fears that once prevailed;On Lingding…

  • Mooring by Maple Bridge at Night [Tang Poems]

    — Zhang Ji Moon sets, crows cry, frost fills the sky; Facing dim fishing boats neath maples, sad I lie. Beyond the city wall of Gusu, from Temple of Cold Hill Bells break the ship-borne roamer’s dream in midnight still.