Shijing or Shi-Jing translations from the Chinese
The Shijing or Shi-Jing or Shih-Ching (“Book of Songs” or “Book of Odes”) is the oldest Chinese poetry collection, with the poems included believed to date from around 1200 BC to 600 BC. According to tradition the poems were selected and edited by Confucius himself. Since most ancient poetry did not rhyme, these may be the world’s oldest extant rhyming poems.
Shijing Ode #4: “JIU MU”
ancient Chinese rhyming poem circa (1200 BC - 600 BC)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Oldest Rhyming Poems
These are translations of some of the oldest rhyming poems, both English rhyming poems and ancient rhyming poems from other languages.
Translations of the Oldest Rhyming Poems in the English Language
Middle English Translations
These are my modern English translations of some of the very best Middle English poems.
This World's Joy
anonymous Middle English poem, circa 1300
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Winter awakens all my care
as leafless trees grow bare.
For now my sighs are fraught
whenever it enters my thought:
regarding this world's joy,
how everything comes to naught.
[MS. Harl. 2253. f. 49r]
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 |
Anchored at Jiande River
Meng Haoran
This anchored boat’s astir in fog and breeze,
As sunset rends my fears up once again,
But as the sky descends beneath the trees,
The river, moon, and quiet become my friends.
A Chance Encounter
By chance I saw her at the corner
Of Fifth and Forty-Eight;
The crowd moved past, we talked at last,
And smiled as on a date.
We planned to meet again sometime
Or talk at any rate,
But the number she gave I failed to save,
As charm’s a poor cousin to fate.
Witch’s Brew
A fern surrounds my life like a hollow maze
In the intricate lattice of love’s first gaze;
Following a pattern that guides me on this road
I reach for her lips beneath the mistletoe.
My love comes forth with the apple of desire,
A tangled taste that takes a life to acquire;
Magic and nightshade in a mandrake stew,
I drink the nighttime herbs in a witch’s brew.
Seared in my skin like a tattoo of her name,
My cry has faded to a touch without shame;
Pulled by a thread that stains the earth and sky
