Autumn Night, A Note

Autumn Night, A Note

 
Wei Yingwu (~737 – 792)
 
 
By chance I think of you this autumn night
Between my steps and song, and cooling skies:
Within your quiet hills a pine cone falls,
For you as well must not have closed your eyes.
 
 
Chinese
 
秋夜寄邱員外
韋應物
 
懷君屬秋夜
散步詠涼天
空山松子落
幽人應未眠
Pronunciation
 
Qiū Yè Jì Qiū Yuán Wài

Farewell to a Dear Friend

Within the mountain midst, a farewell scene:
I shut my door, the sun begins to set.
In spring next year the grass will turn to green,
But if you’ll come back here, I know not yet.
 
 
 
Chinese
 
送別
 
山中相送罷,
日暮掩柴扉。
春草明年綠,
王孫歸不歸。
 
 
Pronunciation
 
Sòng Bié
 
Shān zhōng xiāng sòng bà,
Rì mù yǎn chái fēi。
Chūn cǎo nián nián lǜ,
Wáng sūn guī bù guī。
 
 
Literal Character Translation

Sending Off My Cousin, Beyond the Castle by the Southern Moon

At home we fenced with traveling swords,
Cutting at this and that like idle lords;
The two of us, like towns around a turn,
Will drift apart as soon as I return.
 
Riding horses over the moon bridge south,
We follow the light to the road fork’s mouth;
Arriving at last at Shandong Mountain,
Memories flow like an endless fountain.
 
Blossoms scatter about this fragrant plot
As we drink until our sense is shot;
Drunk and happy, we rise with force,
But cannot climb back on the horse.
 
 

Sending Off a Lord to Guizhou, Demoted to a Magistrate

I don't know the road to Guizhou, but still I send off a former lord
Who's set to travel a thousand miles across the cries of forest apes,
To flutter about like a bird that flies throughout the great five lakes.
The rulers know nothing, the mountains are deep with vulgar hordes:
He's stuck in a foreign land, unable to move for fear of broken brakes.

 

Original Chinese Poem by Liu Changqing

 

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