基督教中国: 英汉对照—

卷01、五言古诗卷02、五言乐府

卷03、七言古诗卷04、七言乐府

卷05、五言律诗卷06、七言律诗

卷07、七言乐府卷08、五言绝句

卷09、五言乐府卷10、七言绝句

卷11、七言乐府　

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About the electronic version

Tang Shi San Bai Shou

300 Tang Poems

Heng-t'ang-t'ui-Shih, 618-907

Creation of machine-readable version: Xuezhi Guo. Chung-ming Lung.

Conversion to TEI.P3-conformant markup: University of Virginia Electronic Text Center. University of Virginia Alderman Library Humanities Services.

University of Virginia Electronic Center

Charlottesville, VA

Alderman Library, University of Virginia Charlottesville VA 22903

URL: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/chinese/

1997 The Chinese version of this Tang Shi is edited by UVa based on Mr. Wei-chang Shan's electronic version.

English translations are primarily from Witter Bynner's Jade mountain. Translations of poems 001, 003, 039, 040, 042, 083 and 084 are from 300 Tang Poems of Commercial Press. Translations of poems 190, 191, 193 are from "Perspectives on the Tang" edited by Arthur Wright and Denis Twitchett, published by Yale University Press, 1973.

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About the print version

The Jade Mountain

Translator Witter Bynner.

Alfred A.Knopf

New York

1920 Reprinted with permission of the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry.

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About the print version

300 Tang Poems : a new translation

Editor Yuan-zhong Xu. Bei-yei Loh. Juntao Wu. Translator Various.

Commercial Press

Hong Kong

1987 Reproduced by permission of the Commercial Press (Hong Kong) Limited from the publication of "300 Tang Poems : A New Translation"

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About the print version

Perspectives on the Tang

Editor Arthur Wright. Denis Twitchett.

Yale University Press

New Haven

1973 Reproduced with permission. Copyright 1973 by Yale University. All right reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.

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001

五言古诗

张九龄

感遇其一

孤鸿海上来，池潢不敢顾；

侧见双翠鸟，巢在三珠树。

矫矫珍木巅，得无金丸惧？

美服患人指，高明逼神恶。

今我游冥冥，弋者何所慕？

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Zhang Jiuling

THOUGHTS I

A lonely swan from the sea flies,

To alight on puddles it does not deign.

Nesting in the poplar of pearls

It spies and questions green birds twain:

"Don't you fear the threat of slings,

Perched on top of branches so high?

Nice clothes invite pointing fingers,

High climbers god's good will defy.

Bird-hunters will crave me in vain,

For I roam the limitless sky."

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002

五言古诗

张九龄

感遇其二

兰叶春葳蕤，桂华秋皎洁；

欣欣此生意，自尔为佳节。

谁知林栖者？闻风坐相悦，

草木有本心，何求美人折？

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Zhang Jiuling

ORCHID AND ORANGE I

Tender orchid-leaves in spring

And cinnamon- blossoms bright in autumn

Are as self- contained as life is,

Which conforms them to the seasons.

Yet why will you think that a forest-hermit,

Allured by sweet winds and contented with beauty,

Would no more ask to-be transplanted

THan Would any other natural flower?

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003

五言古诗

张九龄

感遇其三

幽人归独卧，滞虑洗孤清，

持此谢高鸟，因之传远情。

日夕怀空意，人谁感至精？

飞沈理自隔，何所慰吾诚？

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Zhang Jiuling

THOUGHTS III

The hermit in his lone abode

Nurses his thoughts cleansed of care,

Them he projects to the wild goose

For it to his distant Sovereign to bear.

Who will be moved by the sincerity

Of my vain day-and-night prayer?

What comfort is for my loyalty

When fliers and sinkers can compare?

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004

五言古诗

张九龄

感遇其四

江南有丹橘，经冬犹绿林；

岂伊地气暖？自有岁寒心。

可以荐嘉客，奈何阻重深？

运命惟所遇，循环不可寻。

徒言树桃李，此木岂无阴？

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Zhang Jiuling

ORCHID AND ORANGE II

Here, south of the Yangzi, grows a red orangetree.

All winter long its leaves are green,

Not because of a warmer soil,

But because its' nature is used to the cold.

Though it might serve your honourable guests,

You leave it here, far below mountain and river.

Circumstance governs destiny.

Cause and effect are an infinite cycle.

You plant your peach-trees and your plums,

You forget the shade from this other tree.

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005

五言古诗

李白

下终南山过斛斯山人宿置酒

暮从碧山下，山月随人归；

却顾所来径，苍苍横翠微。

相携及田家，童稚开荆扉；

绿竹入幽径，青萝拂行衣。

欢言得所憩，美酒聊共挥；

长歌吟松风，曲尽河星稀。

我醉君复乐，陶然共忘机。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Li Bai

DOWN ZHONGNAN MOUNTAIN

TO THE KIND PILLOW AND BOWL OF HUSI

Down the blue mountain in the evening,

Moonlight was my homeward escort.

Looking back, I saw my path

Lie in levels of deep shadow....

I was passing the farm-house of a friend,

When his children called from a gate of thorn

And led me twining through jade bamboos

Where green vines caught and held my clothes.

And I was glad of a chance to rest

And glad of a chance to drink with my friend....

We sang to the tune of the wind in the pines;

And we finished our songs as the stars went down,

When, I being drunk and my friend more than happy,

Between us we forgot the world.

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006

五言古诗

李白

月下独酌

花间一壶酒，独酌无相亲；

举杯邀明月，对影成三人。

月既不解饮，影徒随我身；

暂伴月将影，行乐须及春。

我歌月徘徊，我舞影零乱；

醒时同交欢，醉后各分散。

永结无情游，相期邈云汉。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Li Bai

DRINKING ALONE WITH THE MOON

From a pot of wine among the flowers

I drank alone. There was no one with me --

Till, raising my cup, I asked the bright moon

To bring me my shadow and make us three.

Alas, the moon was unable to drink

And my shadow tagged me vacantly;

But still for a while I had these friends

To cheer me through the end of spring....

I sang. The moon encouraged me.

I danced. My shadow tumbled after.

As long as I knew, we were boon companions.

And then I was drunk, and we lost one another.

...Shall goodwill ever be secure?

I watch the long road of the River of Stars.

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007

五言古诗

李白

春思

燕草如碧丝，秦桑低绿枝；

当君怀归日，是妾断肠时。

春风不相识，何事入罗帏？

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Li Bai

IN SPRING

Your grasses up north are as blue as jade,

Our mulberries here curve green-threaded branches;

And at last you think of returning home,

Now when my heart is almost broken....

O breeze of the spring, since I dare not know you,

Why part the silk curtains by my bed?

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008

五言古诗

杜甫

望岳

岱宗夫如何？齐鲁青未了。

造化钟神秀，阴阳割昏晓。

荡胸生层云，决眥入归鸟。

会当凌绝顶，一览众山小。

又作岳

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

A VIEW OF TAISHAN

What shall I say of the Great Peak? --

The ancient dukedoms are everywhere green,

Inspired and stirred by the breath of creation,

With the Twin Forces balancing day and night.

...I bare my breast toward opening clouds,

I strain my sight after birds flying home.

When shall I reach the top and hold

All mountains in a single glance?

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009

五言古诗

杜甫

赠卫八处士

人生不相见，动如参与商，

今夕复何夕？共此灯烛光。

少壮能几时？鬓发各已苍。

访旧半为鬼，惊呼热中肠。

焉知二十载，重上君子堂。

昔别君未婚，儿女忽成行；

怡然敬父执，问我来何方。

问答乃未已，驱儿罗酒浆。

夜雨剪春韭，新炊间黄粱。

主称会面难，一举累十觞；

十觞亦不醉，感子故意长。

明日隔山岳，世事两茫茫。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

TO MY RETIRED FRIEND WEI

It is almost as hard for friends to meet

As for the morning and evening stars.

Tonight then is a rare event,

Joining, in the candlelight,

Two men who were young not long ago

But now are turning grey at the temples.

...To find that half our friends are dead

Shocks us, burns our hearts with grief.

We little guessed it would be twenty years

Before I could visit you again.

When I went away, you were still unmarried;

But now these boys and girls in a row

Are very kind to their father's old friend.

They ask me where I have been on my journey;

And then, when we have talked awhile,

They bring and show me wines and dishes,

Spring chives cut in the night-rain

And brown rice cooked freshly a special way.

...My host proclaims it a festival,

He urges me to drink ten cups --

But what ten cups could make me as drunk

As I always am with your love in my heart?

...Tomorrow the mountains will separate us;

After tomorrow-who can say?

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010

五言古诗

杜甫

佳人

绝代有佳人，幽居在空谷；

自云良家子，零落依草木。

关中昔丧乱，兄弟遭杀戮；

官高何足论？不得收骨肉。

世情恶衰歇，万事随转烛。

夫婿轻薄儿，新人美如玉。

合昏尚知时，鸳鸯不独宿；

但见新人笑，那闻旧人哭？

在山泉水清，出山泉水浊。

侍婢卖珠回，牵萝补茅屋。

摘花不插发，采柏动盈掬。

天寒翠袖薄，日暮倚修竹。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

ALONE IN HER BEAUTY

Who is lovelier than she?

Yet she lives alone in an empty valley.

She tells me she came from a good family

Which is humbled now into the dust.

...When trouble arose in the Kuan district,

Her brothers and close kin were killed.

What use were their high offices,

Not even shielding their own lives? --

The world has but scorn for adversity;

Hope goes out, like the light of a candle.

Her husband, with a vagrant heart,

Seeks a new face like a new piece of jade;

And when morning-glories furl at night

And mandarin-ducks lie side by side,

All he can see is the smile of the new love,

While the old love weeps unheard.

The brook was pure in its mountain source,

But away from the mountain its waters darken.

...Waiting for her maid to come from selling pearls

For straw to cover the roof again,

She picks a few flowers, no longer for her hair,

And lets pine-needles fall through her fingers,

And, forgetting her thin silk sleeve and the cold,

She leans in the sunset by a tall bamboo.

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011

五言古诗

杜甫

梦李白之一

死别已吞声，生别常恻恻。

江南瘴疠地，逐客无消息。

故人入我梦，明我长相忆；

君今在罗网，何以有羽翼？

恐非平生魂，路远不可测。

魂来枫林青，魂返关塞黑；

落月满屋梁，犹疑照颜色。

水深波浪阔，无使蛟龙得。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

SEEING Li Bai IN A DREAM I

There are sobs when death is the cause of parting;

But life has its partings again and again.

...From the poisonous damps of the southern river

You had sent me not one sign from your exile --

Till you came to me last night in a dream,

Because I am always thinking of you.

I wondered if it were really you,

Venturing so long a journey.

You came to me through the green of a forest,

You disappeared by a shadowy fortress....

Yet out of the midmost mesh of your snare,

How could you lift your wings and use them?

...I woke, and the low moon's glimmer on a rafter

Seemed to be your face, still floating in the air.

...There were waters to cross, they were wild and tossing;

If you fell, there were dragons and rivermonsters.

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012

五言古诗

杜甫

梦李白之二

浮云终日行，游子久不至；

三夜频梦君，情亲见君意。

告归常局促，苦道来不易。

江湖多风波，舟楫恐失坠。

出门搔白首，若负平生志。

冠盖满京华，斯人独憔悴。

孰云网恢恢？将老身反累！

千秋万岁名，寂寞身后事。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

SEEING Li Bai IN A DREAM II

This cloud, that has drifted all day through the sky,

May, like a wanderer, never come back....

Three nights now I have dreamed of you --

As tender, intimate and real as though I were awake.

And then, abruptly rising to go,

You told me the perils of adventure

By river and lake-the storms, the wrecks,

The fears that are borne on a little boat;

And, here in my doorway, you rubbed your white head

As if there were something puzzling you.

...Our capital teems with officious people,

While you are alone and helpless and poor.

Who says that the heavenly net never fails?

It has brought you ill fortune, old as you are.

...A thousand years' fame, ten thousand years' fame-

What good, when you are dead and gone.

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013

五言古诗

王维

送别

下马饮君酒，问君何所之？

君言不得意，归卧南山陲。

但去莫复闻，白云无尽时。

又作问

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Five-character-quatrain

Wang Wei

AT PARTING

I dismount from my horse and I offer you wine,

And I ask you where you are going and why.

And you answer: "I am discontent

And would rest at the foot of the southern mountain.

So give me leave and ask me no questions.

White clouds pass there without end."

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014

五言古诗

王维

送綦毋潜落第还乡

圣代无隐者，英灵尽来归，

遂令东山客，不得顾采薇。

既至金门远，孰云吾道非？

江淮度寒食，京洛缝春衣。

置酒长安道，同心与我违；

行当浮桂棹，未几拂荆扉。

远树带行客，孤城当落晖。

吾谋适不用，勿谓知音稀？

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Five-character-quatrain

Wang Wei

TO QIWU QIAN BOUND HOME

AFTER FAILING IN AN EXAMINATION

In a happy reign there should be no hermits;

The wise and able should consult together....

So you, a man of the eastern mountains,

Gave up your life of picking herbs

And came all the way to the Gate of Gold --

But you found your devotion unavailing.

...To spend the Day of No Fire on one of the southern rivers,

You have mended your spring clothes here in these northern cities.

I pour you the farewell wine as you set out from the capital --

Soon I shall be left behind here by my bosomfriend.

In your sail-boat of sweet cinnamon-wood

You will float again toward your own thatch door,

Led along by distant trees

To a sunset shining on a far-away town.

...What though your purpose happened to fail,

Doubt not that some of us can hear high music.

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015

五言古诗

王维

青溪

言入黄花川，每逐青溪水；

随山将万转，趣途无百里。

声喧乱石中，色静深松里；

漾漾泛菱荇，澄澄映葭苇。

我心素已闲，清川澹如此。

请留盘石上，垂钓将已矣！

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Five-character-quatrain

Wang Wei

A GREEN STREAM

I have sailed the River of Yellow Flowers,

Borne by the channel of a green stream,

Rounding ten thousand turns through the mountains

On a journey of less than thirty miles....

Rapids hum over heaped rocks;

But where light grows dim in the thick pines,

The surface of an inlet sways with nut-horns

And weeds are lush along the banks.

...Down in my heart I have always been as pure

As this limpid water is....

Oh, to remain on a broad flat rock

And to cast a fishing-line forever!

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016

五言古诗

王维

渭川田家

斜光照墟落，穷巷牛羊归。

野老念牧童，倚杖候荆扉。

雉雊麦苗秀，蚕眠桑叶稀。

田夫荷锄立，相见语依依。

即此羡闲逸，怅然吟式微。

又作至

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Five-character-quatrain

Wang Wei

A FARM-HOUSE ON THE WEI RIVER

In the slant of the sun on the country-side,

Cattle and sheep trail home along the lane;

And a rugged old man in a thatch door

Leans on a staff and thinks of his son, the herdboy.

There are whirring pheasants? full wheat-ears,

Silk-worms asleep, pared mulberry-leaves.

And the farmers, returning with hoes on their shoulders,

Hail one another familiarly.

...No wonder I long for the simple life

And am sighing the old song, Oh, to go Back Again!

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017

五言古诗

王维

西施咏

艳色天下重，西施宁久微？

朝为越溪女，暮作吴宫妃。

贱日岂殊众？贵来方悟稀。

邀人傅脂粉，不自著罗衣，

君宠益娇态，君怜无是非。

当时浣纱伴，莫得同车归。

持谢邻家子，效颦安可希？

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Five-character-quatrain

Wang Wei

THE BEAUTIFUL XI SHI

Since beauty is honoured all over the Empire,

How could Xi Shi remain humbly at home? --

Washing clothes at dawn by a southern lake --

And that evening a great lady in a palace of the north:

Lowly one day, no different from the others,

The next day exalted, everyone praising her.

No more would her own hands powder her face

Or arrange on her shoulders a silken robe.

And the more the King loved her, the lovelier she looked,

Blinding him away from wisdom.

...Girls who had once washed silk beside her

Were kept at a distance from her chariot.

And none of the girls in her neighbours' houses

By pursing their brows could copy her beauty.

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018

五言古诗

孟浩然

秋登兰山寄张五

北山白云里，隐者自怡悦；

相望始登高，心随雁飞灭。

愁因薄暮起，兴是清秋发。

时见归村人，沙行渡头歇。

天边树若荠，江畔洲如月。

何当载酒来，共醉重阳节。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Meng Haoran

ON CLIMBING ORCHID MOUNTAIN

IN THE AUTUMN TO ZHANG

On a northern peak among white clouds

You have found your hermitage of peace;

And now, as I climb this mountain to see you,

High with the wildgeese flies my heart.

The quiet dusk might seem a little sad

If this autumn weather were not so brisk and clear;

I look down at the river bank, with homeward-bound villagers

Resting on the sand till the ferry returns;

There are trees at the horizon like a row of grasses

And against the river's rim an island like the moon

I hope that you will come and meet me, bringing a basket of wine --

And we'll celebrate together the Mountain Holiday.

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019

五言古诗

孟浩然

夏日南亭怀辛大

山光忽西落，池月渐东上。

散发乘夜凉，开轩卧闲敞。

荷风送香气，竹露滴清响。

欲取鸣琴弹，恨无知音赏。

感此怀故人，中宵劳梦想。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Meng Haoran

IN SUMMER AT THE SOUTH PAVILION

THINKING OF XING

The mountain-light suddenly fails in the west,

In the east from the lake the slow moon rises.

I loosen my hair to enjoy the evening coolness

And open my window and lie down in peace.

The wind brings me odours of lotuses,

And bamboo-leaves drip with a music of dew....

I would take up my lute and I would play,

But, alas, who here would understand?

And so I think of you, old friend,

O troubler of my midnight dreams !

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020

五言古诗

孟浩然

宿业师山房待丁大不至

夕阳度西岭，群壑倏已暝；

松月生夜凉，风泉满清听。

樵人归欲尽，烟鸟栖初定。

之子期宿来，孤琴候萝径。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Meng Haoran

AT THE MOUNTAIN-LODGE OF THE BUDDHIST PRIEST YE

WAITING IN VAIN FOR MY FRIEND DING

Now that the sun has set beyond the western range,

Valley after valley is shadowy and dim....

And now through pine-trees come the moon and the chill of evening,

And my ears feel pure with the sound of wind and water

Nearly all the woodsmen have reached home,

Birds have settled on their perches in the quiet mist....

And still -- because you promised -- I am waiting for you, waiting,

Playing lute under a wayside vine.

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021

五言古诗

王昌龄

同从弟南斋玩月忆山阴崔少府

高卧南斋时，开帷月初吐；

清辉淡水木，演漾在窗户。

苒苒几盈虚？澄澄变今古。

美人清江畔，是夜越吟苦。

千里其如何？微风吹兰杜。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Wang Changling

WITH MY BROTHER AT THE SOUTH STUDY

THINKING IN THE MOONLIGHT OF VICE-PREFECT

CUI IN SHANYIN

Lying on a high seat in the south study,

We have lifted the curtain-and we see the rising moon

Brighten with pure light the water and the grove

And flow like a wave on our window and our door.

It will move through the cycle, full moon and then crescent again,

Calmly, beyond our wisdom, altering new to old.

...Our chosen one, our friend, is now by a limpid river --

Singing, perhaps, a plaintive eastern song.

He is far, far away from us, three hundred miles away.

And yet a breath of orchids comes along the wind.

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022

五言古诗

邱为

寻西山隐者不遇

绝顶一茅茨，直上三十里；

扣关无僮仆，窥室惟案几。

若非巾柴车？应是钓秋水。

差池不相见，黾勉空仰止。

草色新雨中，松声晚窗里；

及兹契幽绝，自足荡心耳。

虽无宾主意，颇得清净理。

兴尽方下山，何必待之子。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Qiu Wei

AFTER MISSING THE RECLUSE

ON THE WESTERN MOUNTAIN

To your hermitage here on the top of the mountain

I have climbed, without stopping, these ten miles.

I have knocked at your door, and no one answered;

I have peeped into your room, at your seat beside the table.

Perhaps you are out riding in your canopied chair,

Or fishing, more likely, in some autumn pool.

Sorry though I am to be missing you,

You have become my meditation --

The beauty of your grasses, fresh with rain,

And close beside your window the music of your pines.

I take into my being all that I see and hear,

Soothing my senses, quieting my heart;

And though there be neither host nor guest,

Have I not reasoned a visit complete?

...After enough, I have gone down the mountain.

Why should I wait for you any longer?

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023

五言古诗

綦毋潜

春泛若耶溪

幽意无断绝，此去随所偶；

晚风吹行舟，花路入溪口。

际夜转西壑，隔山望南斗。

潭烟飞溶溶，林月低向后。

生事且弥漫，愿为持竿叟。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Qiwu Qian

A BOAT IN SPRING ON RUOYA LAKE

Thoughtful elation has no end:

Onward I bear it to whatever come.

And my boat and I, before the evening breeze

Passing flowers, entering the lake,

Turn at nightfall toward the western valley,

Where I watch the south star over the mountain

And a mist that rises, hovering soft,

And the low moon slanting through the trees;

And I choose to put away from me every worldly matter

And only to be an old man with a fishing-pole.

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024

五言古诗

常建

宿王昌龄隐居

清溪深不测，隐处唯孤云；

松际露微月，清光犹为君。

茅亭宿花影，药院滋苔纹。

余亦谢时去，西山鸾鹤群。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Chang Jian

AT WANG CHANGLIN' S RETREAT

Here, beside a clear deep lake,

You live accompanied by clouds;

Or soft through the pine the moon arrives

To be your own pure-hearted friend.

You rest under thatch in the shadow of your flowers,

Your dewy herbs flourish in their bed of moss.

Let me leave the world. Let me alight, like you,

On your western mountain with phoenixes and cranes.

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025

五言古诗

岑参

与高适薛据登慈恩寺浮图

塔势如涌出，孤高耸天宫；

登临出世界，磴道盘虚空。

突兀压神州，峥嵘如鬼工；

四角碍白日，七层摩苍穹。

下窥指高鸟，俯听闻惊风。

连山若波涛，奔凑如朝东。

青槐夹驰道，宫馆何玲珑？

秋色从西来，苍然满关中。

五陵北原上，万古青蒙蒙。

净理了可悟，胜因夙所宗。

誓将挂冠去，觉道资无穷。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Cen Can

ASCENDING THE PAGODA AT THE TEMPLE OF KIND

FAVOUR WITH GAO SHI AND XUE JU

The pagoda, rising abruptly from earth,

Reaches to the very Palace of Heaven....

Climbing, we seem to have left the world behind us,

With the steps we look down on hung from space.

It overtops a holy land

And can only have been built by toil of the spirit.

Its four sides darken the bright sun,

Its seven stories cut the grey clouds;

Birds fly down beyond our sight,

And the rapid wind below our hearing;

Mountain-ranges, toward the east,

Appear to be curving and flowing like rivers;

Far green locust-trees line broad roads

Toward clustered palaces and mansions;

Colours of autumn, out of the west,

Enter advancing through the city;

And northward there lie, in five graveyards,

Calm forever under dewy green grass,

Those who know life's final meaning

Which all humankind must learn.

...Henceforth I put my official hat aside.

To find the Eternal Way is the only happiness.

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026

五言古诗

元结

贼退示官吏并序

癸卯岁，西原贼入道州，焚烧杀掠，几尽而去。明年，贼又攻永州，破邵，不犯此州边鄙而退，岂力能制敌欤？盖蒙其伤怜而已！诸史何为忍苦徵敛！故作诗一篇以示官吏。

昔岁逢太平，山林二十年。

泉源在庭户，洞壑当门前。

井税有常期，日晏犹得眠。

忽然遭时变，数岁亲戎旃。

今来典斯郡，山夷又纷然。

城小贼不屠，人贫伤可怜。

是以陷邻境，此州独见全。

使臣将王命，岂不如贼焉？

令彼徵敛者，迫之如火煎。

谁能绝人命？以作时世贤。

思欲委符节，引竿自刺船，

将家就鱼麦，归老江湖边。

又作宴

又作世

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Yuan Jie

TO THE TAX-COLLECTORS

AFTER THE BANDITS RETREAT

In the year Kuimao the bandits from Xiyuan entered Daozhou, set fire, raided, killed, and looted. The whole district was almost ruined. The next year the bandits came again and, attacking the neighbouring prefecture, Yong, passed this one by. It was not because we were strong enough to defend ourselves, but, probably, because they pitied us. And how now can these commissioners bear to impose extra taxes? I have written this poem for the collectors' information.

I still remember those days of peace --

Twenty years among mountains and forests,

The pure stream running past my yard,

The caves and valleys at my door.

Taxes were light and regular then,

And I could sleep soundly and late in the morning-

Till suddenly came a sorry change.

...For years now I have been serving in the army.

When I began here as an official,

The mountain bandits were rising again;

But the town was so small it was spared by the thieves,

And the people so poor and so pitiable

That all other districts were looted

And this one this time let alone.

...Do you imperial commissioners

Mean to be less kind than bandits?

The people you force to pay the poll

Are like creatures frying over a fire.

And how can you sacrifice human lives,

Just to be known as able collectors? --

...Oh, let me fling down my official seal,

Let me be a lone fisherman in a small boat

And support my family on fish and wheat

And content my old age with rivers and lakes!

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027

五言古诗

韦应物

郡斋雨中与诸文士燕集

兵卫森画戟，宴寝凝清香。

海上风雨至，逍遥池阁凉。

烦痾近消散，嘉宾复满堂。

自惭居处崇，未睹斯民康。

理会是非遣，性达形迹忘。

鲜肥属时禁，蔬果幸见尝。

俯饮一杯酒，仰聆金玉章。

神欢体自轻，意欲淩风翔。

吴中盛文史，群彦今汪洋。

方知大蕃地，岂曰财赋强？

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Wei Yingwu

ENTERTAINING LITERARY MEN IN MY

OFFICIAL RESIDENCE ON A RAINY DAY

Outside are insignia, shown in state;

But here are sweet incense-clouds, quietly ours.

Wind and rain, coming in from sea,

Have cooled this pavilion above the lake

And driven the feverish heat away

From where my eminent guests are gathered.

...Ashamed though I am of my high position

While people lead unhappy lives,

Let us reasonably banish care

And just be friends, enjoying nature.

Though we have to go without fish and meat,

There are fruits and vegetables aplenty.

...We bow, we take our cups of wine,

We give our attention to beautiful poems.

When the mind is exalted, the body is lightened

And feels as if it could float in the wind.

...Suzhou is famed as a centre of letters;

And all you writers, coming here,

Prove that the name of a great land

Is made by better things than wealth.

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028

五言古诗

韦应物

初发扬子寄元大校书

凄凄去亲爱，泛泛入烟雾；

归棹洛阳人，残钟广陵树。

今朝为此别，何处还相遇？

世事波上舟，沿洄安得住。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Wei Yingwu

SETTING SAIL ON THE YANGZI

TO SECRETARY YUAN

Wistful, away from my friends and kin,

Through mist and fog I float and float

With the sail that bears me toward Loyang.

In Yangzhou trees linger bell-notes of evening,

Marking the day and the place of our parting....

When shall we meet again and where?

...Destiny is a boat on the waves,

Borne to and fro, beyond our will.

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029

五言古诗

韦应物

寄全椒山中道士

今朝郡斋冷，忽念山中客；

涧底束荆薪，归来煮白石。

欲持一瓢酒，远慰风雨夕；

落叶满空山，何处寻行迹。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Wei Yingwu

A POEM TO A TAOIST HERMIT

CHUANJIAO MOUNTAIN

My office has grown cold today;

And I suddenly think of my mountain friend

Gathering firewood down in the valley

Or boiling white stones for potatoes in his hut....

I wish I might take him a cup of wine

To cheer him through the evening storm;

But in fallen leaves that have heaped the bare slopes,

How should I ever find his footprints!

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030

五言古诗

韦应物

长安遇冯著

客从东方来，衣上灞陵雨。

问客何为来？采山因买斧。

冥冥花正开，扬扬燕新乳。

昨别今已春，鬓丝生几缕。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Wei Yingwu

ON MEETING MY FRIEND FENG ZHU

IN THE CAPITAL

Out of the east you visit me,

With the rain of Baling still on your clothes,

I ask you what you have come here for;

You say: "To buy an ax for cutting wood in the mountains"

...Hidden deep in a haze of blossom,

Swallow fledglings chirp at ease

As they did when we parted, a year ago....

How grey our temples have grown since them!

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031

五言古诗

韦应物

夕次盱眙县

落帆逗淮镇，停舫临孤驿。

浩浩风起波，冥冥日沈夕。

人归山郭暗，雁下芦洲白。

独夜忆秦关，听钟未眠客。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Wei Yingwu

MOORING AT TWILIGHT IN YUYI DISTRICT

Furling my sail near the town of Huai,

I find for harbour a little cove

Where a sudden breeze whips up the waves.

The sun is growing dim now and sinks in the dusk.

People are coming home. The bright mountain-peak darkens.

Wildgeese fly down to an island of white weeds.

...At midnight I think of a northern city-gate,

And I hear a bell tolling between me and sleep.

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032

五言古诗

韦应物

东郊

吏舍跼终年，出郊旷清曙。

杨柳散和风，青山澹吾虑。

依丛适自憩，缘涧还复去。

微雨霭芳原，春鸠鸣何处？

乐幽心屡止，遵事迹犹遽；

终罢斯结庐，慕陶真可庶。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Wei Yingwu

EAST OF THE TOWN

From office confinement all year long,

I have come out of town to be free this morning

Where willows harmonize the wind

And green hills lighten the cares of the world.

I lean by a tree and rest myself

Or wander up and down a stream.

...Mists have wet the fragrant meadows;

A spring dove calls from some hidden place.

...With quiet surroundings, the mind is at peace,

But beset with affairs, it grows restless again....

Here I shall finally build me a cabin,

As Tao Qian built one long ago.

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033

五言古诗

韦应物

送杨氏女

永日方戚戚，出行复悠悠。

女子今有行，大江溯轻舟。

尔辈苦无恃，抚念益慈柔；

幼为长所育，两别泣不休。

对此结中肠，义往难复留。

自小阙内训，事姑贻我忧；

赖兹托令门，仁恤庶无尤。

贫俭诚所尚，资从岂待周！

孝恭遵妇道，容止顺其猷。

别离在今晨，见尔当何秋？

居闲始自遣，临感忽难收。

归来视幼女，零泪缘缨流。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Wei Yingwu

TO MY DAUGHTER

ON HER MARRIAGE INTO THE YANG FAMILY

My heart has been heavy all day long

Because you have so far to go.

The marriage of a girl, away from her parents,

Is the launching of a little boat on a great river.

...You were very young when your mother died,

Which made me the more tender of you.

Your elder sister has looked out for you,

And now you are both crying and cannot part.

This makes my grief the harder to bear;

Yet it is right that you should go.

...Having had from childhood no mother to guide you,

How will you honour your mother-in-law?

It's an excellent family; they will be kind to you,

They will forgive you your mistakes --

Although ours has been so pure and poor

That you can take them no great dowry.

Be gentle and respectful, as a woman should be,

Careful of word and look, observant of good example.

...After this morning we separate,

There's no knowing for how long....

I always try to hide my feelings --

They are suddenly too much for me,

When I turn and see my younger daughter

With the tears running down her cheek.

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034

五言古诗

柳宗元

晨诣超师院读禅经

汲井漱寒齿，清心拂尘服，

闲持贝叶书，步出东斋读。

真源了无取，忘迹世所逐；

遗言冀可冥，缮性何由熟？

道人庭宇静，苔色连深竹；

日出雾露余，青松如膏沐。

澹然离言说，悟悦心自足。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Liu Zongyuan

READING BUDDHIST CLASSICS WITH ZHAO

AT HIS TEMPLE IN THE EARLY MORNING

I clean my teeth in water drawn from a cold well;

And while I brush my clothes, I purify my mind;

Then, slowly turning pages in the Tree-Leaf Book,

I recite, along the path to the eastern shelter.

...The world has forgotten the true fountain of this teaching

And people enslave themselves to miracles and fables.

Under the given words I want the essential meaning,

I look for the simplest way to sow and reap my nature.

Here in the quiet of the priest's templecourtyard,

Mosses add their climbing colour to the thick bamboo;

And now comes the sun, out of mist and fog,

And pines that seem to be new-bathed;

And everything is gone from me, speech goes, and reading,

Leaving the single unison.

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035

五言古诗

柳宗元

溪居

久为簪组累，幸此南夷谪。

闲依农圃邻，偶似山林客。

晓耕翻露草，夜榜响溪石，

来往不逢人，长歌楚天碧。

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Five-character-ancient-verse

Liu Zongyuan

DWELLING BY A STREAM

I had so long been troubled by official hat and robe

That I am glad to be an exile here in this wild southland.

I am a neighbour now of planters and reapers.

I am a guest of the mountains and woods.

I plough in the morning, turning dewy grasses,

And at evening tie my fisher-boat, breaking the quiet stream.

Back and forth I go, scarcely meeting anyone,

And sing a long poem and gaze at the blue sky.

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036

乐府

王昌龄

塞上曲

蝉鸣空桑林，八月萧关道；

出塞复入塞，处处黄芦草。

从来幽并客，皆向沙场老；

莫学游侠儿，矜夸紫骝好。

又作共尘沙

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Wang Changling

AT A BORDER-FORTRESS

Cicadas complain of thin mulberry-trees

In the Eighth-month chill at the frontier pass.

Through the gate and back again, all along the road,

There is nothing anywhere but yellow reeds and grasses

And the bones of soldiers from You and from Bing

Who have buried their lives in the dusty sand.

...Let never a cavalier stir you to envy

With boasts of his horse and his horsemanship

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037

乐府

王昌龄

塞下曲

饮马渡秋水，水寒风似刀。

平沙日未没，黯黯见临洮。

昔日长城战，咸言意气高；

黄尘足今古，白骨乱蓬蒿。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Wang Changling

UNDER A BORDER-FORTRESS

Drink, my horse, while we cross the autumn water!-

The stream is cold and the wind like a sword,

As we watch against the sunset on the sandy plain,

Far, far away, shadowy Lingtao.

Old battles, waged by those long walls,

Once were proud on all men's tongues.

But antiquity now is a yellow dust,

Confusing in the grasses its ruins and white bones.

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038

乐府

李白

关山月

明月出天山，苍茫云海间；

长风几万里，吹度玉门关。

汉下白登道，胡窥青海湾。

由来征战地，不见有人还。

戍客望边色，思归多苦颜；

高楼当此夜，叹息未应闲。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

THE MOON AT THE FORTIFIED PASS

The bright moon lifts from the Mountain of Heaven

In an infinite haze of cloud and sea,

And the wind, that has come a thousand miles,

Beats at the Jade Pass battlements....

China marches its men down Baideng Road

While Tartar troops peer across blue waters of the bay....

And since not one battle famous in history

Sent all its fighters back again,

The soldiers turn round, looking toward the border,

And think of home, with wistful eyes,

And of those tonight in the upper chambers

Who toss and sigh and cannot rest.

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039

乐府

李白

子夜四时歌春歌

秦地罗敷女，采桑绿水边。

素手青条上，红妆白日鲜。

蚕饥妾欲去，五马莫留连。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

BALLADS OF FOUR SEASONS: SPRING

The lovely Lo Fo of the western land

Plucks mulberry leaves by the waterside.

Across the green boughs stretches out her white hand;

In golden sunshine her rosy robe is dyed.

"my silkworms are hungry, I cannot stay.

Tarry not with your five-horse cab, I pray."

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040

乐府

李白

子夜四时歌夏歌

镜湖三百里，菡萏发荷花。

五月西施采，人看隘若耶。

回舟不待月，归去越王家。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

BALLADS OF FOUR SEASONS: SUMMER

On Mirror Lake outspread for miles and miles,

The lotus lilies in full blossom teem.

In fifth moon Xi Shi gathers them with smiles,

Watchers o'erwhelm the bank of Yuoye Stream.

Her boat turns back without waiting moonrise

To yoyal house amid amorous sighs.

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041

乐府

李白

子夜四时歌秋歌

长安一片月，万户捣衣声；

秋风吹不尽，总是玉关情。

何日平胡虏？良人罢远征。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

A SONG OF AN AUTUMN MIDNIGHT

A slip of the moon hangs over the capital;

Ten thousand washing-mallets are pounding;

And the autumn wind is blowing my heart

For ever and ever toward the Jade Pass....

Oh, when will the Tartar troops be conquered,

And my husband come back from the long campaign!

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042

乐府

李白

子夜四时歌冬歌

明朝驿使发，一夜絮征袍。

素手抽针冷，那堪把剪刀。

裁缝寄远道，几日到临洮。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

BALLADS OF FOUR SEASONS: WINTER

The courier will depart next day, she's told.

She sews a warrior's gown all night.

Her fingers feel the needle cold.

How can she hold the scissors tight?

The work is done, she sends it far away.

When will it reach the town where warriors stay?

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043

乐府

李白

长干行

妾发初覆额，折花门前剧；

郎骑竹马来，绕床弄青梅。

同居长干里，两小无嫌猜。

十四为君妇，羞颜未尝开；

低头向暗壁，千唤不一回，

十五始展眉，愿同尘与灰；

常存抱柱信，岂上望夫台？

十六君远行，瞿塘滟滪堆；

五月不可触，猿鸣天上哀。

门前迟行迹，一一生绿苔；

苔深不能扫，落叶秋风早。

八月蝴蝶来，双飞西园草。

感此伤妾心，坐愁红颜老。

早晚下三巴，预将书报家；

相迎不道远，直至长风沙。

又作声

又作黄

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

A SONG OF CHANGGAN

My hair had hardly covered my forehead.

I was picking flowers, paying by my door,

When you, my lover, on a bamboo horse,

Came trotting in circles and throwing green plums.

We lived near together on a lane in Ch'ang-kan,

Both of us young and happy-hearted.

...At fourteen I became your wife,

So bashful that I dared not smile,

And I lowered my head toward a dark corner

And would not turn to your thousand calls;

But at fifteen I straightened my brows and laughed,

Learning that no dust could ever seal our love,

That even unto death I would await you by my post

And would never lose heart in the tower of silent watching.

...Then when I was sixteen, you left on a long journey

Through the Gorges of Ch'u-t'ang, of rock and whirling water.

And then came the Fifth-month, more than I could bear,

And I tried to hear the monkeys in your lofty far-off sky.

Your footprints by our door, where I had watched you go,

Were hidden, every one of them, under green moss,

Hidden under moss too deep to sweep away.

And the first autumn wind added fallen leaves.

And now, in the Eighth-month, yellowing butterflies

Hover, two by two, in our west-garden grasses

And, because of all this, my heart is breaking

And I fear for my bright cheeks, lest they fade.

...Oh, at last, when you return through the three Pa districts,

Send me a message home ahead!

And I will come and meet you and will never mind the distance,

All the way to Chang-feng Sha.

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044

乐府

孟郊

烈女操

梧桐相待老，鸳鸯会双死；

贞妇贵殉夫，舍生亦如此。

波澜誓不起，妾心井中水。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Meng Jiao

A SONG OF A PURE-HEARTED GIRL

Lakka-trees ripen two by two

And mandarin-ducks die side by side.

If a true-hearted girl will love only her husband,

In a life as faithfully lived as theirs,

What troubling wave can arrive to vex

A spirit like water in a timeless well?

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045

乐府

孟郊

游子吟

慈母手中线，游子身上衣；

临行密密缝，意恐迟迟归。

谁言寸草心，报得三春辉？

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Meng Jiao

A TRAVELLER'S SONG

The thread in the hands of a fond-hearted mother

Makes clothes for the body of her wayward boy;

Carefully she sews and thoroughly she mends,

Dreading the delays that will keep him late from home.

But how much love has the inch-long grass

For three spring months of the light of the sun?

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046

七言古诗

陈子昂

登幽州台歌

前不见古人，后不见来者；

念天地之悠悠，独怆然而涕下。

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Chen Ziang

ON A GATE-TOWER AT YUZHOU

Where, before me, are the ages that have gone?

And where, behind me, are the coming generations?

I think of heaven and earth, without limit, without end,

And I am all alone and my tears fall down.

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047

七言古诗

李颀

古意

男儿事长征，少小幽燕客，

赌胜马蹄下，由来轻七尺；

杀人莫敢前，须如蝟毛磔。

黄云陇底白雪飞，未得报恩不能归。

辽东小妇年十五，惯弹琵琶解歌舞，

今为羌笛出塞声，使我三军泪如雨。

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Qi

AN OLD AIR

There once was a man, sent on military missions,

A wanderer, from youth, on the You and Yan frontiers.

Under the horses' hoofs he would meet his foes

And, recklessly risking his seven-foot body,

Would slay whoever dared confront

Those moustaches that bristled like porcupinequills.

...There were dark clouds below the hills, there were white clouds above them,

But before a man has served full time, how can he go back?

In eastern Liao a girl was waiting, a girl of fifteen years,

Deft with a guitar, expert in dance and song.

...She seems to be fluting, even now, a reed-song of home,

Filling every soldier's eyes with homesick tears.

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048

七言古诗

李颀

送陈章甫

四月南风大麦黄，枣花未落桐叶长。

青山朝别暮还见，嘶马出门思故乡。

陈侯立身何坦荡？虬须虎眉仍大颡。

腹中贮书一万卷，不肯低头在草莽。

东门酤酒饮我曹，心轻万事皆鸿毛，

醉卧不知白日暮，有时空望孤云高。

长河浪头连天黑，津口停舟渡不得；

郑国游人未及家，洛阳行子空叹息。

闻道故林相识多，罢官昨日今如何。

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Qi

A FAREWELL TO MY FRIEND CHEN ZHANGFU

In the Fourth-month the south wind blows plains of yellow barley,

Date-flowers have not faded yet and lakka-leaves are long.

The green peak that we left at dawn we still can see at evening,

While our horses whinny on the road, eager to turn homeward.

...Chen, my friend, you have always been a great and good man,

With your dragon's moustache, tiger's eyebrows and your massive forehead.

In your bosom you have shelved away ten thousand volumes.

You have held your head high, never bowed it in the dust.

...After buying us wine and pledging us, here at the eastern gate,

And taking things as lightly as a wildgoose feather,

Flat you lie, tipsy, forgetting the white sun;

But now and then you open your eyes and gaze at a high lone cloud.

...The tide-head of the lone river joins the darkening sky.

The ferryman beaches his boat. It has grown too late to sail.

And people on their way from Cheng cannot go home,

And people from Loyang sigh with disappointment.

...I have heard about the many friends around your wood land dwelling.

Yesterday you were dismissed. Are they your friends today?

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049

七言古诗

李颀

琴歌

主人有酒欢今夕，请奏鸣琴广陵客。

月照城头乌半飞，霜凄万树风入衣；

铜炉华烛烛增辉，初弹渌水后楚妃。

一声已动物皆静，四座无言星欲稀。

清淮奉使千余里，敢告云山从此始。

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Qi

A LUTE SONG

Our host, providing abundant wine to make the night mellow,

Asks his guest from Yangzhou to play for us on the lute.

Toward the moon that whitens the city-wall, black crows are flying,

Frost is on ten thousand trees, and the wind blows through our clothes;

But a copper stove has added its light to that of flowery candles,

And the lute plays The Green Water, and then The Queen of Chu.

Once it has begun to play, there is no other sound:

A spell is on the banquet, while the stars grow thin....

But three hundred miles from here, in Huai, official duties await him,

And so it's farewell, and the road again, under cloudy mountains.

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050

七言古诗

李颀

听董大弹胡笳声兼寄语弄房给事

蔡女昔造胡笳声，一弹一十有八拍。

胡人落泪沾边草，汉使断肠对归客。

古戍苍苍烽火寒，大荒沈沈飞雪白。

先拂声弦后角羽，四郊秋叶惊摵摵。

董夫子，通神明，深山窃听来妖精。

言迟更速皆应手，将往复旋如有情。

空山百鸟散还合，万里浮云阴且晴。

嘶酸雏雁失群夜，断绝胡儿恋母声。

川为静其波，鸟亦罢其鸣；

乌孙部落家乡远，逻娑沙尘哀怨生。

幽音变调忽飘洒，长风吹林雨堕瓦；

迸泉飒飒飞木末，野鹿呦呦走堂下。

长安城连东掖垣，凤凰池对青琐门，

高才脱略名与利，日夕望君抱琴至。

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Qi

ON HEARING DONG PLAY THE FLAGEOLET

A POEM TO PALACE-ATTENDANT FANG

When this melody for the flageolet was made by Lady Cai,

When long ago one by one she sang its eighteen stanzas,

Even the Tartars were shedding tears into the border grasses,

And the envoy of China was heart-broken, turning back home with his escort.

...Cold fires now of old battles are grey on ancient forts,

And the wilderness is shadowed with white new-flying snow.

...When the player first brushes the Shang string and the Jue and then the Yu,

Autumn-leaves in all four quarters are shaken with a murmur.

Dong, the master,

Must have been taught in heaven.

Demons come from the deep pine-wood and stealthily listen

To music slow, then quick, following his hand,

Now far away, now near again, according to his heart.

A hundred birds from an empty mountain scatter and return;

Three thousand miles of floating clouds darken and lighten;

A wildgoose fledgling, left behind, cries for its flock,

And a Tartar child for the mother he loves.

Then river waves are calmed

And birds are mute that were singing,

And Wuzu tribes are homesick for their distant land,

And out of the dust of Siberian steppes rises a plaintive sorrow.

...Suddenly the low sound leaps to a freer tune,

Like a long wind swaying a forest, a downpour breaking tiles,

A cascade through the air, flying over tree-tops.

...A wild deer calls to his fellows. He is running among the mansions

In the corner of the capital by the Eastern Palace wall....

Phoenix Lake lies opposite the Gate of Green Jade;

But how can fame and profit concern a man of genius?

Day and night I long for him to bring his lute again.

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051

七言古诗

李颀

听安万善吹觱篥歌

南山截竹为觱篥，此乐本自龟兹出。

流传汉地曲转奇，凉州胡人为我吹；

傍邻闻者多叹息，远客思乡皆泪垂。

世人解听不解赏，长飙风中自来往。

枯桑老柏寒飕飗，九雏鸣凤乱啾啾。

龙吟虎啸一时发，万籁百泉相与秋。

忽然更作渔阳掺，黄云萧条白日暗。

变调如闻杨柳春，上林繁花照眼新。

岁夜高堂列明烛，美酒一杯声一曲。

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Qi

ON HEARING AN WANSHAN PLAY THE REED-PIPE

Bamboo from the southern hills was used to make this pipe.

And its music, that was introduced from Persia first of all,

Has taken on new magic through later use in China.

And now the Tartar from Liangzhou, blowing it for me,

Drawing a sigh from whosoever hears it,

Is bringing to a wanderer's eyes homesick tears....

Many like to listen; but few understand.

To and fro at will there's a long wind flying,

Dry mulberry-trees, old cypresses, trembling in its chill.

There are nine baby phoenixes, outcrying one another;

A dragon and a tiger spring up at the same moment;

Then in a hundred waterfalls ten thousand songs of autumn

Are suddenly changing to The Yuyang Lament;

And when yellow clouds grow thin and the white sun darkens,

They are changing still again to Spring in the Willow Trees.

Like Imperial Garden flowers, brightening the eye with beauty,

Are the high-hall candles we have lighted this cold night,

And with every cup of wine goes another round of music.

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052

七言古诗

孟浩然

夜归鹿门山歌

山寺钟鸣昼已昏，渔梁渡头争渡喧；

人随沙路向江村，余亦乘舟归鹿门。

鹿门月照开烟树，忽到庞公栖隐处；

岩扉松径长寂寥，惟有幽人自来去。

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Meng Haoran

RETURNING AT NIGHT TO LUMEN MOUNTAIN

A bell in the mountain-temple sounds the coming of night.

I hear people at the fishing-town stumble aboard the ferry,

While others follow the sand-bank to their homes along the river.

...I also take a boat and am bound for Lumen Mountain --

And soon the Lumen moonlight is piercing misty trees.

I have come, before I know it, upon an ancient hermitage,

The thatch door, the piney path, the solitude, the quiet,

Where a hermit lives and moves, never needing a companion.

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053

七言古诗

李白

庐山谣寄卢侍御虚舟

我本楚狂人，凤歌笑孔丘。

手持绿玉杖，朝别黄鹤楼；

五岳寻仙不辞远，一生好入名山游。

庐山秀出南斗傍，屏风九叠云锦张；

影落明湖青黛光，金阙前开二峰长。

银河倒挂三石梁，香炉瀑布遥相望。

回崖沓障淩苍苍，翠影红霞映朝日，

鸟飞不到吴天长。

登高壮观天地间，大江茫茫去不黄。

黄云万里动风色，白波九道流雪山。

好为庐山谣，兴因庐山发。

闲窥石镜清我心，谢公行处苍苔没。

早服还丹无世情，琴心三叠道初成；

遥见仙人彩云里，手把芙蓉朝玉京。

先期汗漫九垓上，愿接卢敖游太清。

又作还

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Bai

A SONG OF LU MOUNTAIN TO CENSOR LU XUZHOU

I am the madman of the Chu country

Who sang a mad song disputing Confucius.

...Holding in my hand a staff of green jade,

I have crossed, since morning at the Yellow Crane Terrace,

All five Holy Mountains, without a thought of distance,

According to the one constant habit of my life.

Lu Mountain stands beside the Southern Dipper

In clouds reaching silken like a nine-panelled screen,

With its shadows in a crystal lake deepening the green water.

The Golden Gate opens into two mountain-ranges.

A silver stream is hanging down to three stone bridges

Within sight of the mighty Tripod Falls.

Ledges of cliff and winding trails lead to blue sky

And a flush of cloud in the morning sun,

Whence no flight of birds could be blown into Wu.

...I climb to the top. I survey the whole world.

I see the long river that runs beyond return,

Yellow clouds that winds have driven hundreds of miles

And a snow-peak whitely circled by the swirl of a ninefold stream.

And so I am singing a song of Lu Mountain,

A song that is born of the breath of Lu Mountain.

...Where the Stone Mirror makes the heart's purity purer

And green moss has buried the footsteps of Xie,

I have eaten the immortal pellet and, rid of the world's troubles,

Before the lute's third playing have achieved my element.

Far away I watch the angels riding coloured clouds

Toward heaven's Jade City, with hibiscus in their hands.

And so, when I have traversed the nine sections of the world,

I will follow Saint Luao up the Great Purity.

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054

七言古诗

李白

梦游天姥吟留别

海客谈瀛洲，烟涛微茫信难求。

越人语天姥，云霓明灭或可睹。

天姥连天向天横，势拔五岳掩赤城；

天台四万八千丈，对此欲倒东南倾。

我欲因之梦吴越，一夜飞渡镜湖月。

湖月照我影，送我至剡溪；

谢公宿处今尚在，渌水荡漾清猿啼。

脚著谢公屐，身登青云梯。

半壁见海日，空中闻天鸡。

千岩万壑路不定，迷花倚石忽已暝。

熊咆龙吟殷岩泉，栗深林兮惊层巅。

云青青兮欲雨，水澹澹兮生烟。

列缺霹雳，邱峦崩摧，

洞天石扇，訇然中开；

青冥浩荡不见底，日月照耀金银台。

霓为衣兮风为马，云之君兮纷纷而来下；

虎鼓瑟兮鸾回车。仙之人兮列如麻。

忽魂悸以魄动，怳惊起而长嗟。

惟觉时之枕席，失向来之烟霞。

世间行乐亦如此，古来万事东流水。

别君去兮何时还？且放白鹿青崖间。

须行即骑访名山，安能摧眉折腰事权贵，

使我不得开心颜？

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Bai

TIANMU MOUNTAIN ASCENDED IN A DREAM

A seafaring visitor will talk about Japan,

Which waters and mists conceal beyond approach;

But Yueh people talk about Heavenly Mother Mountain,

Still seen through its varying deeps of cloud.

In a straight line to heaven, its summit enters heaven,

Tops the five Holy Peaks, and casts a shadow through China

With the hundred-mile length of the Heavenly Terrace Range,

Which, just at this point, begins turning southeast.

...My heart and my dreams are in Wu and Yueh

And they cross Mirror Lake all night in the moon.

And the moon lights my shadow

And me to Yan River --

With the hermitage of Xie still there

And the monkeys calling clearly over ripples of green water.

I wear his pegged boots

Up a ladder of blue cloud,

Sunny ocean half-way,

Holy cock-crow in space,

Myriad peaks and more valleys and nowhere a road.

Flowers lure me, rocks ease me. Day suddenly ends.

Bears, dragons, tempestuous on mountain and river,

Startle the forest and make the heights tremble.

Clouds darken with darkness of rain,

Streams pale with pallor of mist.

The Gods of Thunder and Lightning

Shatter the whole range.

The stone gate breaks asunder

Venting in the pit of heaven,

An impenetrable shadow.

...But now the sun and moon illumine a gold and silver terrace,

And, clad in rainbow garments, riding on the wind,

Come the queens of all the clouds, descending one by one,

With tigers for their lute-players and phoenixes for dancers.

Row upon row, like fields of hemp, range the fairy figures.

I move, my soul goes flying,

I wake with a long sigh,

My pillow and my matting

Are the lost clouds I was in.

...And this is the way it always is with human joy:

Ten thousand things run for ever like water toward the east.

And so I take my leave of you, not knowing for how long.

...But let me, on my green slope, raise a white deer

And ride to you, great mountain, when I have need of you.

Oh, how can I gravely bow and scrape to men of high rank and men of high office

Who never will suffer being shown an honest-hearted face!

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055

七言古诗

李白

金陵酒肆留别

风吹柳花满店香，吴姬压酒唤客尝；

金陵子弟来相送，欲行不行各尽觞。

请君试问东流水，别意与之谁短长？

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Bai

PARTING AT A WINE-SHOP IN NANJING

A wind, bringing willow-cotton, sweetens the shop,

And a girl from Wu, pouring wine, urges me to share it

With my comrades of the city who are here to see me off;

And as each of them drains his cup, I say to him in parting,

Oh, go and ask this river running to the east

If it can travel farther than a friend's love!

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056

七言古诗

李白

宣州谢朓楼饯别校书叔云

弃我去者，昨日之日不可留；

乱我心者，今日之日多烦忧。

长风万里送秋雁，对此可以酣高楼。

蓬莱文章建安骨，中间小谢又清发，

俱怀逸兴壮思飞，欲上青天览明月。

抽刀断水水更流，举杯销愁愁更愁。

人生在世不称意，明朝散发弄扁舟。

又作复

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Bai

A FAREWELL TO SECRETARY SHUYUN

AT THE XIETIAO VILLA IN XUANZHOU

Since yesterday had to throw me and bolt,

Today has hurt my heart even more.

The autumn wildgeese have a long wind for escort

As I face them from this villa, drinking my wine.

The bones of great writers are your brushes, in the School of Heaven,

And I am a Lesser Xie growing up by your side.

We both are exalted to distant thought,

Aspiring to the sky and the bright moon.

But since water still flows, though we cut it with our swords,

And sorrows return, though we drown them with wine,

Since the world can in no way answer our craving,

I will loosen my hair tomorrow and take to a fishingboat.

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057

七言古诗

岑参

走马川行奉送封大夫出师西征

君不见走马川行雪海边，平沙莽莽黄入天。

轮台九月风夜吼，一川碎石大如斗，

随风满地石乱走。匈奴草黄马正肥，

金山西见烟尘飞，汉家大将西出师。

将军金甲夜不脱，半夜军行戈相拨，

风头如刀面如割。马毛带雪汗气蒸，

五花连钱旋作冰，幕中草檄砚水凝。

虏骑闻之应胆慑，料知短兵不敢接，

车师西门伫献捷。

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Cen Can

A SONG OF RUNNING-HORSE RIVER IN FAREWELL

TO GENERAL FENG OF THE WESTERN EXPEDITION

Look how swift to the snowy sea races Running-Horse River! --

And sand, up from the desert, flies yellow into heaven.

This Ninth-month night is blowing cold at Wheel Tower,

And valleys, like peck measures, fill with the broken boulders

That downward, headlong, follow the wind.

...In spite of grey grasses, Tartar horses are plump;

West of the Hill of Gold, smoke and dust gather.

O General of the Chinese troops, start your campaign!

Keep your iron armour on all night long,

Send your soldiers forward with a clattering of weapons!

...While the sharp wind's point cuts the face like a knife,

And snowy sweat steams on the horses' backs,

Freezing a pattern of five-flower coins,

Your challenge from camp, from an inkstand of ice,

Has chilled the barbarian chieftain's heart.

You will have no more need of an actual battle! --

We await the news of victory, here at the western pass!

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058

七言古诗

岑参

轮台歌奉送封大夫出师西征

轮台城头夜吹角，轮台城北旄头落。

羽书昨夜过渠黎，单于已在金山西。

戍楼西望烟尘黑，汉兵屯在轮台北。

上将拥旄西出征，平明吹笛大军行。

四边伐鼓雪海涌，三军大呼阴山动。

虏塞兵气连云屯，战场白骨缠草根。

剑河风急雪片阔，沙口石冻马蹄脱。

亚相勤王甘苦辛，誓将报主静边尘。

古来青史谁不见？今见功名胜古人。

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Cen Can

A SONG OF WHEEL TOWER IN FAREWELL TO GENERAL

FENG OF THE WESTERN EXPEDITION

On Wheel Tower parapets night-bugles are blowing,

Though the flag at the northern end hangs limp.

Scouts, in the darkness, are passing Quli,

Where, west of the Hill of Gold, the Tartar chieftain has halted

We can see, from the look-out, the dust and black smoke

Where Chinese troops are camping, north of Wheel Tower.

...Our flags now beckon the General farther west-

With bugles in the dawn he rouses his Grand Army;

Drums like a tempest pound on four sides

And the Yin Mountains shake with the shouts of ten thousand;

Clouds and the war-wind whirl up in a point

Over fields where grass-roots will tighten around white bones;

In the Dagger River mist, through a biting wind,

Horseshoes, at the Sand Mouth line, break on icy boulders.

...Our General endures every pain, every hardship,

Commanded to settle the dust along the border.

We have read, in the Green Books, tales of old days-

But here we behold a living man, mightier than the dead.

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059

七言古诗

岑参

白雪歌送武判官归京

北风卷地白草折，胡天八月即飞雪；

忽如一夜春风来，千树万树梨花开。

散入珠帘湿罗幕，狐裘不暖锦衾薄。

将军角弓不得控，都护铁衣冷犹著。

瀚海阑干百丈冰，愁云黪淡万里凝。

中军置酒饮归客，胡琴琵琶与羌笛。

纷纷暮雪下辕门，风掣红旗冻不翻。

轮台东门送君去，去时雪满天山路；

山回路转不见君，雪上空留马行处。

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Cen Can

A SONG OF WHITE SNOW IN FAREWELL

TO FIELD-CLERK WU GOING HOME

The north wind rolls the white grasses and breaks them;

And the Eighth-month snow across the Tartar sky

Is like a spring gale, come up in the night,

Blowing open the petals of ten thousand peartrees.

It enters the pearl blinds, it wets the silk curtains;

A fur coat feels cold, a cotton mat flimsy;

Bows become rigid, can hardly be drawn

And the metal of armour congeals on the men;

The sand-sea deepens with fathomless ice,

And darkness masses its endless clouds;

But we drink to our guest bound home from camp,

And play him barbarian lutes, guitars, harps;

Till at dusk, when the drifts are crushing our tents

And our frozen red flags cannot flutter in the wind,

We watch him through Wheel-Tower Gate going eastward.

Into the snow-mounds of Heaven-Peak Road....

And then he disappears at the turn of the pass,

Leaving behind him only hoof-prints.

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060

七言古诗

杜甫

韦讽录事宅观曹将军画马图

国初以来画鞍马，神妙独数江都王。

将军得名三十载，人间又见真乘黄。

曾貌先帝照夜白，龙池十日飞霹雳，

内府殷红玛瑙盘，婕妤传诏才人索。

盘赐将军拜舞归，轻纨细绮相追飞；

贵戚权门得笔迹，始觉屏障生光辉。

昔日太宗拳毛騧，近时郭家狮子花。

今之新图有二马，复令识者久叹嗟，

此皆骑战一敌万，缟素漠漠开风沙。

其余七匹亦殊绝，迥若寒空杂烟雪；

霜蹄蹴踏长楸间，马官厮养森成列。

可怜九马争神骏，顾视清高气深稳。

借问苦心爱者谁？后有韦讽前支盾。

忆昔巡幸新丰宫，翠花拂天来向东；

腾骧磊落三万匹，皆与此图筋骨同。

自从献宝朝河宗，无复射蛟江水中。

君不见，金粟堆前松柏里，

龙媒去尽鸟呼风。

又作遁

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

A DRAWING OF A HORSE BY GENERAL CAO

AT SECRETARY WEI FENG'S HOUSE

Throughout this dynasty no one had painted horses

Like the master-spirit, Prince Jiangdu --

And then to General Cao through his thirty years of fame

The world's gaze turned, for royal steeds.

He painted the late Emperor's luminous white horse.

For ten days the thunder flew over Dragon Lake,

And a pink-agate plate was sent him from the palace-

The talk of the court-ladies, the marvel of all eyes.

The General danced, receiving it in his honoured home

After this rare gift, followed rapidly fine silks

From many of the nobles, requesting that his art

Lend a new lustre to their screens.

...First came the curly-maned horse of Emperor Taizong,

Then, for the Guos, a lion-spotted horse....

But now in this painting I see two horses,

A sobering sight for whosoever knew them.

They are war- horses. Either could face ten thousand.

They make the white silk stretch away into a vast desert.

And the seven others with them are almost as noble

Mist and snow are moving across a cold sky,

And hoofs are cleaving snow-drifts under great trees-

With here a group of officers and there a group of servants.

See how these nine horses all vie with one another-

The high clear glance, the deep firm breath.

...Who understands distinction? Who really cares for art?

You, Wei Feng, have followed Cao; Zhidun preceded him.

...I remember when the late Emperor came toward his Summer Palace,

The procession, in green-feathered rows, swept from the eastern sky --

Thirty thousand horses, prancing, galloping,

Fashioned, every one of them, like the horses in this picture....

But now the Imperial Ghost receives secret jade from the River God,

For the Emperor hunts crocodiles no longer by the streams.

Where you see his Great Gold Tomb, you may hear among the pines

A bird grieving in the wind that the Emperor's horses are gone.

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061

七言古诗

杜甫

丹青引赠曹霸将军

将军魏武之子孙，于今为庶为青门；

英雄割据虽已矣！文采风流今尚存。

学书初学卫夫人，但恨无过王右军。

丹青不知老将至，富贵于我如浮云。

开元之中常引见，承恩数上南熏殿，

凌烟功臣少颜色，将军下笔开生面。

良相头上进贤冠，猛将腰间大羽箭。

褒公鄂公毛发动，英姿飒爽犹酣战。

先帝天马玉花骢，画工如山貌不同。

是日牵来赤墀下，迥立阊阖生长风。

诏谓将军拂绢素，意匠惨淡经营中；

斯须九重真龙出，一洗万古凡马空。

玉花却在御榻上，榻上庭前屹相向；

至尊含笑催赐金，圉人太仆皆惆怅，

弟子韩干早入室，亦能画马穷殊相；

干惟画肉不画骨，忍使骅骝气凋丧。

将军画善盖有神，偶逢佳士亦写真；

即今漂泊干戈际，屡貌寻常行路人。

涂穷反遭俗眼白，世上未有如公贫；

但看古来盛名下，终日坎壈缠其身。

又作途

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

A SONG OF A PAINTING TO GENERAL CAO

O General, descended from Wei's Emperor Wu,

You are nobler now than when a noble....

Conquerors and their velour perish,

But masters of beauty live forever.

...With your brush-work learned from Lady Wei

And second only to Wang Xizhi's,

Faithful to your art, you know no age,

Letting wealth and fame drift by like clouds.

...In the years of Kaiyuan you were much with the Emperor,

Accompanied him often to the Court of the South Wind.

When the spirit left great statesmen, on walls of the Hall of Fame

The point of your brush preserved their living faces.

You crowned all the premiers with coronets of office;

You fitted all commanders with arrows at their girdles;

You made the founders of this dynasty, with every hair alive,

Seem to be just back from the fierceness of a battle.

...The late Emperor had a horse, known as Jade Flower,

Whom artists had copied in various poses.

They led him one day to the red marble stairs

With his eyes toward the palace in the deepening air.

Then, General, commanded to proceed with your work,

You centred all your being on a piece of silk.

And later, when your dragon-horse, born of the sky,

Had banished earthly horses for ten thousand generations,

There was one Jade Flower standing on the dais

And another by the steps, and they marvelled at each other....

The Emperor rewarded you with smiles and with gifts,

While officers and men of the stud hung about and stared.

...Han Gan, your follower, has likewise grown proficient

At representing horses in all their attitudes;

But picturing the flesh, he fails to draw the bone-

So that even the finest are deprived of their spirit.

You, beyond the mere skill, used your art divinely-

And expressed, not only horses, but the life of a good man....

Yet here you are, wandering in a world of disorder

And sketching from time to time some petty passerby

People note your case with the whites of their eyes.

There's nobody purer, there's nobody poorer.

...Read in the records, from earliest times,

How hard it is to be a great artist.

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062

七言古诗

杜甫

寄韩谏议

今我不乐思岳阳，身欲奋飞病在床。

美人娟娟隔秋水，濯足洞庭望八荒。

鸿飞冥冥日月白，青枫叶赤天雨霜。

玉京群帝集北斗，或骑麒麟翳凤凰。

芙蓉旌旗烟雾落，影动倒景摇潇湘。

星宫之君醉琼浆，羽人稀少不在旁。

似闻昨者赤松子，恐是汉代韩张良；

昔随刘氏定长安，帷幄未改神惨伤。

国家成败吾岂敢？色难腥腐餐枫香。

周南留滞古所惜，南极老人应寿昌。

美人胡为隔秋水？焉得置之贡玉堂。

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

A LETTER TO CENSOR HAN

I am sad. My thoughts are in Youzhou.

I would hurry there-but I am sick in bed.

...Beauty would be facing me across the autumn waters.

Oh, to wash my feet in Lake Dongting and see at its eight corners

Wildgeese flying high, sun and moon both white,

Green maples changing to red in the frosty sky,

Angels bound for the Capital of Heaven, near the North Star,

Riding, some of them phrenixes, and others unicorns,

With banners of hibiscus and with melodies of mist,

Their shadows dancing upside-down in the southern rivers,

Till the Queen of the Stars, drowsy with her nectar,

Would forget the winged men on either side of her!

...From the Wizard of the Red Pine this word has come for me:

That after his earlier follower he has now a new disciple

Who, formerly at the capital as Emperor Liu's adviser,

In spite of great successes, never could be happy.

...What are a country's rise and fall?

Can flesh-pots be as fragrant as mountain fruit?....

I grieve that he is lost far away in the south.

May the star of long life accord him its blessing!

...O purity, to seize you from beyond the autumn waters

And to place you as an offering in the Court of Imperial Jade.

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063

七言古诗

杜甫

古柏行

孔明庙前有老柏，柯如青铜根如石；

双皮溜雨四十围，黛色参天二千尺。

君臣已与时际会，树木犹为人爱惜。

云来气接巫峡长，月出寒通雪山白。

忆昨路绕锦亭东，先主武侯同閟宫。

崔嵬枝干郊原古，窈窕丹青户牖空。

落落盘踞虽得地，冥冥孤高多烈风。

扶持自是神明力，正直元因造化功。

大厦如倾要梁栋，万牛回首丘山重。

不露文章世已惊，未辞剪伐谁能送？

苦心岂免容蝼蚁？香叶终经宿鸾凤。

志士幽人莫怨嗟，古来材大难为用。

又作霜

又作原

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

A SONG OF AN OLD CYPRESS

Beside the Temple of the Great Premier stands an ancient cypress

With a trunk of green bronze and a root of stone.

The girth of its white bark would be the reach of forty men

And its tip of kingfish-blue is two thousand feet in heaven.

Dating from the days of a great ruler's great statesman,

Their very tree is loved now and honoured by the people.

Clouds come to it from far away, from the Wu cliffs,

And the cold moon glistens on its peak of snow.

...East of the Silk Pavilion yesterday I found

The ancient ruler and wise statesman both worshipped in one temple,

Whose tree, with curious branches, ages the whole landscape

In spite of the fresh colours of the windows and the doors.

And so firm is the deep root, so established underground,

That its lone lofty boughs can dare the weight of winds,

Its only protection the Heavenly Power,

Its only endurance the art of its Creator.

Though oxen sway ten thousand heads, they cannot move a mountain.

...When beams are required to restore a great house,

Though a tree writes no memorial, yet people understand

That not unless they fell it can use be made of it....

Its bitter heart may be tenanted now by black and white ants,

But its odorous leaves were once the nest of phoenixes and pheasants.

...Let wise and hopeful men harbour no complaint.

The greater the timber, the tougher it is to use.

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064

七言古诗

杜甫

观公孙大娘弟子舞剑器行并序

大历二年十月十九日夔府别驾元持宅见临颍李十二娘舞剑器，壮其蔚跂。问其所师，曰︰余公孙大娘弟子也。开元三载，余尚童稚，记于郾城观公孙氏舞剑器浑脱。浏漓顿挫，独出冠时。自高头宜春梨园二伎坊内人，洎外供奉，晓是舞者，圣文神武皇帝初，公孙一人而已。玉貌锦衣，况余白首！今兹弟子亦匪盛颜。既辨其由来，知波澜莫二。抚事慷慨，聊为剑器行。昔者吴人张旭善草书书帖，数尝于邺县见公孙大娘舞西河剑器，自此草书长进，豪荡感激。即公孙可知矣！

昔有佳人公孙氏，一舞剑器动四方。

观者如山色沮丧，天地为之久低昂。

霍如羿射九日落，矫如群帝骖龙翔，

来如雷霆收震怒，罢如江海凝清光。

绛唇珠袖两寂寞，晚有弟子传芬芳。

临颍美人在白帝，妙舞此曲神扬扬。

与余问答既有以，感时抚事增惋伤。

先帝侍女八千人，公孙剑器初第一。

五十年间似反掌，风尘澒洞昏王室。

梨园子弟散如烟，女乐余姿映寒日。

金粟堆前木已拱，瞿塘石城草萧瑟。

玳筵急管曲复终，乐极哀来月东出。

老夫不知其所往？足茧荒山转愁疾。

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Du Fu

A SONG OF DAGGER-DANCING TO A GIRL-PUPIL

OF LADY GONGSUN

On the 19th of the Tenth-month in the second year of Dali, I saw, in the house of the Kueifu official Yuante, a girl named Li from Lingying dancing with a dagger. I admired her skill and asked who was her teacher. She named Lady Gongsun. I remembered that in the third year of Kaiyuan at Yancheng, when I was a little boy, I saw Lady Gongsun dance. She was the only one in the Imperial Theatre who could dance with this weapon. Now she is aged and unknown, and even her pupil has passed the heyday of beauty. I wrote this poem to express my wistfulness. The work of Zhang Xu of the Wu district, that great master of grassy writing, was improved by his having been present when Lady Gongsun danced in the Yeh district. From this may be judged the art of Gongsun.

There lived years ago the beautiful Gongsun,

Who, dancing with her dagger, drew from all four quarters

An audience like mountains lost among themselves.

Heaven and earth moved back and forth, following her motions,

Which were bright as when the Archer shot the nine suns down the sky

And rapid as angels before the wings of dragons.

She began like a thunderbolt, venting its anger,

And ended like the shining calm of rivers and the sea....

But vanished are those red lips and those pearly sleeves;

And none but this one pupil bears the perfume of her fame,

This beauty from Lingying, at the Town of the White God,

Dancing still and singing in the old blithe way.

And while we reply to each other's questions,

We sigh together, saddened by changes that have come.

There were eight thousand ladies in the late Emperor's court,

But none could dance the dagger-dance like Lady Gongsun.

...Fifty years have passed, like the turning of a palm;

Wind and dust, filling the world, obscure the Imperial House.

Instead of the Pear-Garden Players, who have blown by like a mist,

There are one or two girl-musicians now-trying to charm the cold Sun.

There are man-size trees by the Emperor's Golden Tomb

I seem to hear dead grasses rattling on the cliffs of Qutang.

...The song is done, the slow string and quick pipe have ceased.

At the height of joy, sorrow comes with the eastern moon rising.

And I, a poor old man, not knowing where to go,

Must harden my feet on the lone hills, toward sickness and despair.

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065

七言古诗

元结

石鱼湖上醉歌并序

漫叟以公田米酿酒，因休暇，则载酒于湖上，时取一醉；欢醉中，据湖岸，引臂向鱼取酒，使舫载之，遍饮坐者。意疑倚巴丘，酌于君山之上，诸子环洞庭而坐，酒舫泛泛然，触波涛而往来者，乃作歌以长之。

石鱼湖，似洞庭，

夏水欲满君山青。

山为樽，水为沼，

酒徒历历坐洲鸟。

长风连日作大浪，不能废人运酒舫。

我持长瓢坐巴丘，酌饮四座以散愁。

又作岛

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Yuan Jie

A DRINKING SONG AT STONE-FISH LAKE

I have used grain from the public fields, for distilling wine. After my office hours I have the wine loaded on a boat and then I seat my friends on the bank of the lake. The little wine-boats come to each of us and supply us with wine. We seem to be drinking on Pa Islet in Lake Dongting. And I write this poem.

Stone-Fish Lake is like Lake Dongting --

When the top of Zun is green and the summer tide is rising.

...With the mountain for a table, and the lake a fount of wine,

The tipplers all are settled along the sandy shore.

Though a stiff wind for days has roughened the water,

Wine-boats constantly arrive....

I have a long-necked gourd and, happy on Ba Island,

I am pouring a drink in every direction doing away with care.

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066

七言古诗

韩愈

山石

山石荦确行径微，黄昏到寺蝙蝠飞。

升堂坐阶新雨足，芭蕉叶大栀子肥。

僧言古壁佛画好，以火来照所见稀。

铺床拂席置羹饭，疏粝亦足饱我饥。

夜深静卧百虫绝，清月出岭光入扉。

天明独去无道路，出入高下穷烟霏。

山红涧碧纷烂漫，时见松枥皆十围。

当流赤足蹋涧石，水声激激风吹衣。

人生如此自可乐，岂必局束为人鞿？

嗟哉吾党二三子，安得至老不更归？

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Han Yu

MOUNTAIN-STONES

Rough were the mountain-stones, and the path very narrow;

And when I reached the temple, bats were in the dusk.

I climbed to the hall, sat on the steps, and drank the rain- washed air

Among the round gardenia-pods and huge bananaleaves.

On the old wall, said the priest, were Buddhas finely painted,

And he brought a light and showed me, and I called them wonderful

He spread the bed, dusted the mats, and made my supper ready,

And, though the food was coarse, it satisfied my hunger.

At midnight, while I lay there not hearing even an insect,

The mountain moon with her pure light entered my door....

At dawn I left the mountain and, alone, lost my way:

In and out, up and down, while a heavy mist

Made brook and mountain green and purple, brightening everything.

I am passing sometimes pines and oaks, which ten men could not girdle,

I am treading pebbles barefoot in swift-running water --

Its ripples purify my ear, while a soft wind blows my garments....

These are the things which, in themselves, make life happy.

Why should we be hemmed about and hampered with people?

O chosen pupils, far behind me in my own country,

What if I spent my old age here and never went back home?

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067

七言古诗

韩愈

八月十五夜赠张功曹

纤云四卷天无河，清风吹空月舒波。

沙平水息声影绝，一杯相属君当歌。

君歌声酸辞且苦，不能听终泪如雨。

洞庭连天九疑高，蛟龙出没猩鼯号。

十生九死到官所，幽居默默如藏逃。

下床畏蛇食畏药，海气湿蛰熏腥臊。

昨者州前槌大鼓，嗣皇继圣登夔皋。

赦书一日行万里，罪从大辟皆除死。

迁者追回流者还，涤瑕荡垢清朝班。

州家申名使家抑，坎轲祇得移荆蛮。

判司卑官不堪说，未免捶楚尘埃间。

同时辈流多上道，天路幽险难追攀。

君歌且休听我歌，我歌今与君殊科。

一年明月今宵多，人生由命非由他；

有酒不饮奈明何？

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Han Yu

ON THE FESTIVAL OF THE MOON

TO SUB-OFFICIAL ZHANG

The fine clouds have opened and the River of Stars is gone,

A clear wind blows across the sky, and the moon widens its wave,

The sand is smooth, the water still, no sound and no shadow,

As I offer you a cup of wine, asking you to sing.

But so sad is this song of yours and so bitter your voice

That before I finish listening my tears have become a rain:

"Where Lake Dongting is joined to the sky by the lofty Nine-Doubt Mountain,

Dragons, crocodiles, rise and sink, apes, flying foxes, whimper....

At a ten to one risk of death, I have reached my official post,

Where lonely I live and hushed, as though I were in hiding.

I leave my bed, afraid of snakes; I eat, fearing poisons;

The air of the lake is putrid, breathing its evil odours....

Yesterday, by the district office, the great drum was announcing

The crowning of an emperor, a change in the realm.

The edict granting pardons runs three hundred miles a day,

All those who were to die have had their sentences commuted,

The unseated are promoted and exiles are recalled,

Corruptions are abolished, clean officers appointed.

My superior sent my name in but the governor would not listen

And has only transferred me to this barbaric place.

My rank is very low and useless to refer to;

They might punish me with lashes in the dust of the street.

Most of my fellow exiles are now returning home --

A journey which, to me, is a heaven beyond climbing."

...Stop your song, I beg you, and listen to mine,

A song that is utterly different from yours:

"Tonight is the loveliest moon of the year.

All else is with fate, not ours to control;

But, refusing this wine, may we choose more tomorrow?"

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068

七言古诗

韩愈

谒衡岳庙遂宿岳寺题门楼

五岳祭秩皆三公，四方环镇嵩当中。

火维地荒足妖怪，天假神柄专其雄。

喷云泄雾藏半腹，虽有绝顶谁能穷？

我来正逢秋雨节，阴气晦昧无清风。

潜心默祷若有应，岂非正直能感通？

须臾静扫众峰出，仰见突兀撑青空。

紫盖连延接天柱，石廪腾掷堆祝融。

森然魄动下马拜，松柏一迳趋灵宫。

纷墙丹柱动光彩，鬼物图画填青红。

升阶伛偻荐脯酒，欲以菲薄明其衷。

庙内老人识神意，睢盱侦伺能鞠躬。

手持杯珓导我掷，云此最吉余难同。

窜逐蛮荒幸不死，衣食才足甘长终。

侯王将相望久绝，神纵欲福难为功。

夜投佛寺上高阁，星月掩映云曈昽。

猿鸣钟动不知曙，杲杲寒日生于东。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Han Yu

STOPPING AT A TEMPLE ON HENG MOUNTAIN I

INSCRIBE THIS POEM IN THE GATE-TOWER

The five Holy Mountains have the rank of the Three Dukes.

The other four make a ring, with the Song Mountain midmost.

To this one, in the fire-ruled south, where evil signs are rife,

Heaven gave divine power, ordaining it a peer.

All the clouds and hazes are hidden in its girdle;

And its forehead is beholden only by a few.

...I came here in autumn, during the rainy season,

When the sky was overcast and the clear wind gone.

I quieted my mind and prayed, hoping for an answer;

For assuredly righteous thinking reaches to high heaven.

And soon all the mountain-peaks were showing me their faces;

I looked up at a pinnacle that held the clean blue sky:

The wide Purple-Canopy joined the Celestial Column;

The Stone Granary leapt, while the Fire God stood still.

Moved by this token, I dismounted to offer thanks.

A long path of pine and cypress led to the temple.

Its white walls and purple pillars shone, and the vivid colour

Of gods and devils filled the place with patterns of red and blue.

I climbed the steps and, bending down to sacrifice, besought

That my pure heart might be welcome, in spite of my humble offering.

The old priest professed to know the judgment of the God:

He was polite and reverent, making many bows.

He handed me divinity-cups, he showed me how to use them

And told me that my fortune was the very best of all.

Though exiled to a barbarous land, mine is a happy life.

Plain food and plain clothes are all I ever wanted.

To be prince, duke, premier, general, was never my desire;

And if the God would bless me, what better could he grant than this ? --

At night I lie down to sleep in the top of a high tower;

While moon and stars glimmer through the darkness of the clouds....

Apes call, a bell sounds. And ready for dawn

I see arise, far in the east the cold bright sun.

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069

七言古诗

韩愈

石鼓歌

张生手持石鼓文，劝我识作石鼓歌。

少陵无人谪仙死，才薄将奈石鼓何？

周纲淩迟四海沸，宣王愤起挥天戈；

大开明堂受朝贺，诸侯剑佩鸣相磨。

搜于岐阳骋雄俊，万里禽兽皆遮罗。

镌功勒成告万世，凿石作鼓隳嵯峨。

从臣才艺咸第一，拣选撰刻留山阿。

雨淋日炙野火燎，鬼物守护烦撝呵。

公从何处得纸本？毫发尽备无差讹。

辞严义密读难晓，字体不类隶与蝌。

年深岂免有缺画？快剑砍断生蛟鼍。

鸾翔凤翥众仙下，珊瑚碧树交枝柯。

金绳铁索锁钮壮，古鼎跃水龙腾梭。

陋儒编诗不收入，二雅褊迫无委蛇。

孔子西行不到秦，掎摭星宿遗羲娥。

嗟予好古生苦晚，对此涕泪双滂沱。

忆昔初蒙博士徵，其年始改称元和。

故人从军在右辅，为我度量掘臼科。

濯冠沐浴告祭酒，如此至宝存岂多？

毡包席裹可立致，十鼓祇载数骆驼。

荐诸太庙比郜鼎，光价岂止百倍过。

圣恩若许留太学，诸生讲解得切磋。

观经鸿都尚填咽，坐见举国来奔波。

剜苔剔藓露节角，安置妥帖平不颇。

大厦深檐与盖覆，经历久远期无佗。

中朝大官老于事，讵肯感激徒媕婀？

牧童敲火牛砺角，谁复著手为摩挲？

日销月铄就埋没，六年西顾空吟哦。

羲之俗书趁姿媚，数纸尚可博白鹅。

继周八代争战罢，无人收拾理则那。

方今太平日无事，柄任儒术崇丘轲。

安能以此上论列？愿借辩口如悬河。

石鼓之歌止于此，呜呼吾意其蹉跎。

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Han Yu

A POEM ON THE STONE DRUMS

Chang handed me this tracing, from the stone drums,

Beseeching me to write a poem on the stone drums.

Du Fu has gone. Li Bai is dead.

What can my poor talent do for the stone drums?

...When the Zhou power waned and China was bubbling,

Emperor Xuan, up in wrath, waved his holy spear:

And opened his Great Audience, receiving all the tributes

Of kings and lords who came to him with a tune of clanging weapons.

They held a hunt in Qiyang and proved their marksmanship:

Fallen birds and animals were strewn three thousand miles.

And the exploit was recorded, to inform new generations....

Cut out of jutting cliffs, these drums made of stone-

On which poets and artisans, all of the first order,

Had indited and chiselled-were set in the deep mountains

To be washed by rain, baked by sun, burned by wildfire,

Eyed by evil spirits; and protected by the gods.

...Where can he have found the tracing on this paper? --

True to the original, not altered by a hair,

The meaning deep, the phrases cryptic, difficult to read.

And the style of the characters neither square nor tadpole.

Time has not yet vanquished the beauty of these letters --

Looking like sharp daggers that pierce live crocodiles,

Like phoenix-mates dancing, like angels hovering down,

Like trees of jade and coral with interlocking branches,

Like golden cord and iron chain tied together tight,

Like incense-tripods flung in the sea, like dragons mounting heaven.

Historians, gathering ancient poems, forgot to gather these,

To make the two Books of Musical Song more colourful and striking;

Confucius journeyed in the west, but not to the Qin Kingdom,

He chose our planet and our stars but missed the sun and moon

I who am fond of antiquity, was born too late

And, thinking of these wonderful things, cannot hold back my tears....

I remember, when I was awarded my highest degree,

During the first year of Yuanho,

How a friend of mine, then at the western camp,

Offered to assist me in removing these old relics.

I bathed and changed, then made my plea to the college president

And urged on him the rareness of these most precious things.

They could be wrapped in rugs, be packed and sent in boxes

And carried on only a few camels: ten stone drums

To grace the Imperial Temple like the Incense-Pot of Gao --

Or their lustre and their value would increase a hundredfold,

If the monarch would present them to the university,

Where students could study them and doubtless decipher them,

And multitudes, attracted to the capital of culture

Prom all corners of the Empire, would be quick to gather.

We could scour the moss, pick out the dirt, restore the original surface,

And lodge them in a fitting and secure place for ever,

Covered by a massive building with wide eaves

Where nothing more might happen to them as it had before.

...But government officials grow fixed in their ways

And never will initiate beyond old precedent;

So herd- boys strike the drums for fire, cows polish horns on them,

With no one to handle them reverentially.

Still ageing and decaying, soon they may be effaced.

Six years I have sighed for them, chanting toward the west....

The familiar script of Wang Xizhi, beautiful though it was,

Could be had, several pages, just for a few white geese,

But now, eight dynasties after the Zhou, and all the wars over,

Why should there be nobody caring for these drums?

The Empire is at peace, the government free.

Poets again are honoured and Confucians and Mencians....

Oh, how may this petition be carried to the throne?

It needs indeed an eloquent flow, like a cataract-

But, alas, my voice has broken, in my song of the stone drums,

To a sound of supplication choked with its own tears.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

070

七言古诗

柳宗元

渔翁

渔翁夜傍西岩宿，晓汲清湘燃楚烛。

烟销日出不见人，欸乃一声山水绿。

回看天际下中流，岩上无心云相逐。

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Liu Zongyuan

AN OLD FISHERMAN

An old fisherman spent the night here, under the western cliff;

He dipped up water from the pure Hsiang and made a bamboo fire;

And then, at sunrise, he went his way through the cloven mist,

With only the creak of his paddle left, in the greenness of mountain and river.

...I turn and see the waves moving as from heaven,

And clouds above the cliffs coming idly, one by one.

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071

七言古诗

白居易

长恨歌

汉皇重色思倾国，御宇多年求不得。

杨家有女初长成，养在深闺人未识。

天生丽质难自弃，一朝选在君王侧；

回眸一笑百媚生，六宫粉黛无颜色。

春寒赐浴华清池，温泉水滑洗凝脂；

侍儿扶起娇无力，始是新承恩泽时。

云鬓花颜金步摇，芙蓉帐暖度春宵；

春宵苦短日高起，从此君王不早朝。

承欢侍宴无闲暇，春从春游夜专夜。

后宫佳丽三千人，三千宠爱在一身。

金星妆成娇侍夜，玉楼宴罢醉和春。

姊妹弟兄皆列士，可怜光彩生门户；

遂令天下父母心，不重生男重生女。

骊宫高处入青云，仙乐风飘处处闻；

缓歌慢舞凝丝竹，尽日君王看不足。

渔阳鼙鼓动地来，惊破霓裳羽衣曲。

九重城阙烟尘生，千乘万骑西南行。

翠华摇摇行复止，西出都门百余里。

六军不发无奈何？宛转蛾眉马前死。

花钿委地无人收，翠翘金雀玉搔头。

君王掩面救不得，回看血泪相和流。

黄埃散漫风萧索，云栈萦纡登剑阁。

峨嵋山下少人行，旌旗无光日色薄。

蜀江水碧蜀山青，圣主朝朝暮暮情。

行宫见月伤心色，夜雨闻铃肠断声。

天旋地转回龙驭，到此踌躇不能去。

马嵬坡下泥土中，不见玉颜空死处。

君臣相顾尽沾衣，东望都门信马归。

归来池苑皆依旧，太液芙蓉未央柳；

芙蓉如面柳如眉，对此如何不泪垂？

春风桃李花开日，秋雨梧桐叶落时。

西宫南内多秋草，落叶满阶红不扫。

梨园子弟白发新，椒房阿监青娥老。

夕殿萤飞思悄然，孤灯挑尽未成眠。

迟迟钟鼓初长夜，耿耿星河欲曙天。

鸳鸯瓦冷霜华重，翡翠衾寒谁与共？

悠悠生死别经年，魂魄不曾来入梦。

临邛道士鸿都客，能以精诚致魂魄；

为感君王辗转思，遂教方士殷勤觅。

排空驭气奔如电，升天入地求之遍；

上穷碧落下黄泉，两处茫茫皆不见。

忽闻海上有仙山，山在虚无缥缈间；

楼阁玲珑五云起，其中绰约多仙子。

中有一人字太真，雪肤花貌参差是。

金阙西厢叩玉扃，转教小玉报双成。

闻道汉家天子使，九华帐里梦魂惊。

揽衣推枕起徘徊，珠箔银屏迤逦开，

云鬓半偏新睡觉，花冠不整下堂来。

风吹仙袂飘飘举，犹似霓裳羽衣舞；

玉容寂寞泪阑干，梨花一枝春带雨。

含情凝睇谢君王，一别音容两渺茫。

昭阳殿里恩爱绝，蓬莱宫中日月长。

回头下望人寰处，不见长安见尘雾。

唯将旧物表深情，钿合金钗寄将去。

钗留一股合一扇，钗擘黄金合分钿；

但教心似金钿坚，天上人间会相见。

临别殷勤重寄词，词中有誓两心知。

七月七日长生殿，夜半无人私语时。

在天愿作比翼鸟，在地愿为连理枝。

天长地久有时尽，此恨绵绵无绝期。

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Bai Juyi

A SONG OF UNENDING SORROW

China's Emperor, craving beauty that might shake an empire,

Was on the throne for many years, searching, never finding,

Till a little child of the Yang clan, hardly even grown,

Bred in an inner chamber, with no one knowing her,

But with graces granted by heaven and not to be concealed,

At last one day was chosen for the imperial household.

If she but turned her head and smiled, there were cast a hundred spells,

And the powder and paint of the Six Palaces faded into nothing.

...It was early spring. They bathed her in the FlowerPure Pool,

Which warmed and smoothed the creamy-tinted crystal of her skin,

And, because of her languor, a maid was lifting her

When first the Emperor noticed her and chose her for his bride.

The cloud of her hair, petal of her cheek, gold ripples of her crown when she moved,

Were sheltered on spring evenings by warm hibiscus curtains;

But nights of spring were short and the sun arose too soon,

And the Emperor, from that time forth, forsook his early hearings

And lavished all his time on her with feasts and revelry,

His mistress of the spring, his despot of the night.

There were other ladies in his court, three thousand of rare beauty,

But his favours to three thousand were concentered in one body.

By the time she was dressed in her Golden Chamber, it would be almost evening;

And when tables were cleared in the Tower of Jade, she would loiter, slow with wine.

Her sisters and her brothers all were given titles;

And, because she so illumined and glorified her clan,

She brought to every father, every mother through the empire,

Happiness when a girl was born rather than a boy.

...High rose Li Palace, entering blue clouds,

And far and wide the breezes carried magical notes

Of soft song and slow dance, of string and bamboo music.

The Emperor's eyes could never gaze on her enough-

Till war-drums, booming from Yuyang, shocked the whole earth

And broke the tunes of The Rainbow Skirt and the Feathered Coat.

The Forbidden City, the nine-tiered palace, loomed in the dust

From thousands of horses and chariots headed southwest.

The imperial flag opened the way, now moving and now pausing- -

But thirty miles from the capital, beyond the western gate,

The men of the army stopped, not one of them would stir

Till under their horses' hoofs they might trample those moth- eyebrows....

Flowery hairpins fell to the ground, no one picked them up,

And a green and white jade hair-tassel and a yellowgold hair- bird.

The Emperor could not save her, he could only cover his face.

And later when he turned to look, the place of blood and tears

Was hidden in a yellow dust blown by a cold wind.

... At the cleft of the Dagger-Tower Trail they crisscrossed through a cloud-line

Under Omei Mountain. The last few came.

Flags and banners lost their colour in the fading sunlight....

But as waters of Shu are always green and its mountains always blue,

So changeless was His Majesty's love and deeper than the days.

He stared at the desolate moon from his temporary palace.

He heard bell-notes in the evening rain, cutting at his breast.

And when heaven and earth resumed their round and the dragon car faced home,

The Emperor clung to the spot and would not turn away

From the soil along the Mawei slope, under which was buried

That memory, that anguish. Where was her jade-white face?

Ruler and lords, when eyes would meet, wept upon their coats

As they rode, with loose rein, slowly eastward, back to the capital.

...The pools, the gardens, the palace, all were just as before,

The Lake Taiye hibiscus, the Weiyang Palace willows;

But a petal was like her face and a willow-leaf her eyebrow --

And what could he do but cry whenever he looked at them?

...Peach-trees and plum-trees blossomed, in the winds of spring;

Lakka-foliage fell to the ground, after autumn rains;

The Western and Southern Palaces were littered with late grasses,

And the steps were mounded with red leaves that no one swept away.

Her Pear-Garden Players became white-haired

And the eunuchs thin-eyebrowed in her Court of PepperTrees;

Over the throne flew fire-flies, while he brooded in the twilight.

He would lengthen the lamp-wick to its end and still could never sleep.

Bell and drum would slowly toll the dragging nighthours

And the River of Stars grow sharp in the sky, just before dawn,

And the porcelain mandarin-ducks on the roof grow thick with morning frost

And his covers of kingfisher-blue feel lonelier and colder

With the distance between life and death year after year;

And yet no beloved spirit ever visited his dreams.

...At Lingqiong lived a Taoist priest who was a guest of heaven,

Able to summon spirits by his concentrated mind.

And people were so moved by the Emperor's constant brooding

That they besought the Taoist priest to see if he could find her.

He opened his way in space and clove the ether like lightning,

Up to heaven, under the earth, looking everywhere.

Above, he searched the Green Void, below, the Yellow Spring;

But he failed, in either place, to find the one he looked for.

And then he heard accounts of an enchanted isle at sea,

A part of the intangible and incorporeal world,

With pavilions and fine towers in the five-coloured air,

And of exquisite immortals moving to and fro,

And of one among them-whom they called The Ever True-

With a face of snow and flowers resembling hers he sought.

So he went to the West Hall's gate of gold and knocked at the jasper door

And asked a girl, called Morsel-of-Jade, to tell The Doubly- Perfect.

And the lady, at news of an envoy from the Emperor of China,

Was startled out of dreams in her nine-flowered, canopy.

She pushed aside her pillow, dressed, shook away sleep,

And opened the pearly shade and then the silver screen.

Her cloudy hair-dress hung on one side because of her great haste,

And her flower-cap was loose when she came along the terrace,

While a light wind filled her cloak and fluttered with her motion

As though she danced The Rainbow Skirt and the Feathered Coat.

And the tear-drops drifting down her sad white face

Were like a rain in spring on the blossom of the pear.

But love glowed deep within her eyes when she bade him thank her liege,

Whose form and voice had been strange to her ever since their parting --

Since happiness had ended at the Court of the Bright Sun,

And moons and dawns had become long in Fairy-Mountain Palace.

But when she turned her face and looked down toward the earth

And tried to see the capital, there were only fog and dust.

So she took out, with emotion, the pledges he had given

And, through his envoy, sent him back a shell box and gold hairpin,

But kept one branch of the hairpin and one side of the box,

Breaking the gold of the hairpin, breaking the shell of the box;

"Our souls belong together," she said, " like this gold and this shell --

Somewhere, sometime, on earth or in heaven, we shall surely

And she sent him, by his messenger, a sentence reminding him

Of vows which had been known only to their two hearts:

"On the seventh day of the Seventh-month, in the Palace of Long Life,

We told each other secretly in the quiet midnight world

That we wished to fly in heaven, two birds with the wings of one,

And to grow together on the earth, two branches of one tree."

Earth endures, heaven endures; some time both shall end,

While this unending sorrow goes on and on for ever.

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072

七言古诗

白居易

琵琶行并序

元和十年，予左迁九江郡司马。明年秋，送客湓浦口，闻船中夜弹琵琶者，听其音，铮铮然有京都声；问其人，本长安倡女，尝学琵琶于穆曹二善才。年长色衰，委身为贾人妇。遂命酒，使快弹数曲，曲罢悯然。自叙少小时欢乐事，今漂沦憔悴，转徙于江湖间。予出官二年恬然自安，感斯人言，是夕，始觉有迁谪意，因为长句歌以赠之，凡六百一十六言，命曰琵琶行。

浔言江头夜送客，枫叶荻花秋瑟瑟。

主人下马客在船，举酒欲饮无管弦。

醉不成欢惨将别，别时茫茫江浸月。

忽闻水上琵琶声，主人忘归客不发。

寻声暗问弹者谁？琵琶声停欲语迟。

移船相近邀相见，添酒回灯重开宴。

千呼万唤始出来，犹抱琵琶半遮面。

转轴拨弦三两声，未成曲调先有情。

弦弦掩抑声声思，似诉平生不得志。

低眉信手续续弹，说尽心中无限事。

轻拢慢撚抹复挑，初为霓裳后六么。

大弦嘈嘈如急雨，小弦切切如私语。

嘈嘈切切错杂弹，大珠小珠落玉盘。

间官莺语花底滑，幽咽泉流水下滩。

水泉冷涩弦凝绝，凝绝不通声渐歇。

别有幽愁暗恨生，此时无声胜有声。

银瓶乍破水浆迸，铁骑突出刀鎗鸣。

曲终收拨当心画，四弦一声如裂帛。

东船西舫悄无言，唯见江心秋月白。

沈吟放拨插弦中，整顿衣裳起敛容。

自言本是京城女，家在虾蟆陵下住。

十三学得琵琶成，名属教坊第一部。

曲罢曾教善才服，妆成每被秋娘妒，

五陵年少争缠头，一曲红绡不知数。

钿头银篦击节碎，血色罗裙翻酒污。

今年欢笑复明年，秋月春风等闲度。

弟走从军阿姨死，暮去朝来颜色故。

门前冷落车马稀，老大嫁作商人妇。

商人重利轻别离，前月浮梁买茶去。

去来江口守空船，绕船月明江水寒。

夜深忽梦少年事，梦啼妆泪红阑干，

我闻琵琶已叹息，又闻此语重唧唧。

同是天涯沦落人，相逢何必曾相识。

我从去年辞帝京，谪居卧病浔阳城。

浔阳地僻无音乐，终岁不闻丝竹声。

住近湓江地低湿，黄芦苦竹绕宅生。

其间旦暮闻何物，杜鹃啼血猿哀鸣。

春江花朝秋月夜，往往取酒还独倾。

岂无山歌与村笛？呕哑嘲哳难为听。

今夜闻君琵琶语，如听仙乐耳暂明。

莫辞更坐弹一曲，为君翻作琵琶行。

感我此言良久立，却坐促弦弦转急。

凄凄不似向前声，满座重闻皆掩泣。

座中泣下谁最多，江州司马青衫湿。

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Seven-character-ancient-verse

Bai Chuyi

THE SONG OF A GUITAR

In the tenth year of Yuanhe I was banished and demoted to be assistant official in Jiujiang. In the summer of the next year I was seeing a friend leave Penpu and heard in the midnight from a neighbouring boat a guitar played in the manner of the capital. Upon inquiry, I found that the player had formerly been a dancing-girl there and in her maturity had been married to a merchant. I invited her to my boat to have her play for us. She told me her story, heyday and then unhappiness. Since my departure from the capital I had not felt sad; but that night, after I left her, I began to realize my banishment. And I wrote this long poem -- six hundred and twelve characters.

I was bidding a guest farewell, at night on the Xunyang River,

Where maple-leaves and full-grown rushes rustled in the autumn.

I, the host, had dismounted, my guest had boarded his boat,

And we raised our cups and wished to drink-but, alas, there was no music.

For all we had drunk we felt no joy and were parting from each other,

When the river widened mysteriously toward the full moon --

We had heard a sudden sound, a guitar across the water.

Host forgot to turn back home, and guest to go his way.

We followed where the melody led and asked the player's name.

The sound broke off...then reluctantly she answered.

We moved our boat near hers, invited her to join us,

Summoned more wine and lanterns to recommence our banquet.

Yet we called and urged a thousand times before she started toward us,

Still hiding half her face from us behind her guitar.

...She turned the tuning-pegs and tested several strings;

We could feel what she was feeling, even before she played:

Each string a meditation, each note a deep thought,

As if she were telling us the ache of her whole life.

She knit her brows, flexed her fingers, then began her music,

Little by little letting her heart share everything with ours.

She brushed the strings, twisted them slow, swept them, plucked them --

First the air of The Rainbow Skirt, then The Six Little Ones.

The large strings hummed like rain,

The small strings whispered like a secret,

Hummed, whispered-and then were intermingled

Like a pouring of large and small pearls into a plate of jade.

We heard an oriole, liquid, hidden among flowers.

We heard a brook bitterly sob along a bank of sand...

By the checking of its cold touch, the very string seemed broken

As though it could not pass; and the notes, dying away

Into a depth of sorrow and concealment of lament,

Told even more in silence than they had told in sound....

A silver vase abruptly broke with a gush of water,

And out leapt armored horses and weapons that clashed and smote --

And, before she laid her pick down, she ended with one stroke,

And all four strings made one sound, as of rending silk

There was quiet in the east boat and quiet in the west,

And we saw the white autumnal moon enter the river's heart.

...When she had slowly placed the pick back among the strings,

She rose and smoothed her clothing and, formal, courteous,

Told us how she had spent her girlhood at the capital,

Living in her parents' house under the Mount of Toads,

And had mastered the guitar at the age of thirteen,

With her name recorded first in the class-roll of musicians,

Her art the admiration even of experts,

Her beauty the envy of all the leading dancers,

How noble youths of Wuling had lavishly competed

And numberless red rolls of silk been given for one song,

And silver combs with shell inlay been snapped by her rhythms,

And skirts the colour of blood been spoiled with stains of wine....

Season after season, joy had followed joy,

Autumn moons and spring winds had passed without her heeding,

Till first her brother left for the war, and then her aunt died,

And evenings went and evenings came, and her beauty faded --

With ever fewer chariots and horses at her door;

So that finally she gave herself as wife to a merchant

Who, prizing money first, careless how he left her,

Had gone, a month before, to Fuliang to buy tea.

And she had been tending an empty boat at the river's mouth,

No company but the bright moon and the cold water.

And sometimes in the deep of night she would dream of her triumphs

And be wakened from her dreams by the scalding of her tears.

Her very first guitar-note had started me sighing;

Now, having heard her story, I was sadder still.

"We are both unhappy -- to the sky's end.

We meet. We understand. What does acquaintance matter?

I came, a year ago, away from the capital

And am now a sick exile here in Jiujiang --

And so remote is Jiujiang that I have heard no music,

Neither string nor bamboo, for a whole year.

My quarters, near the River Town, are low and damp,

With bitter reeds and yellowed rushes all about the house.

And what is to be heard here, morning and evening? --

The bleeding cry of cuckoos, the whimpering of apes.

On flowery spring mornings and moonlit autumn nights

I have often taken wine up and drunk it all alone,

Of course there are the mountain songs and the village pipes,

But they are crude and-strident, and grate on my ears.

And tonight, when I heard you playing your guitar,

I felt as if my hearing were bright with fairymusic.

Do not leave us. Come, sit down. Play for us again.

And I will write a long song concerning a guitar."

...Moved by what I said, she stood there for a moment,

Then sat again to her strings-and they sounded even sadder,

Although the tunes were different from those she had played before....

The feasters, all listening, covered their faces.

But who of them all was crying the most?

This Jiujiang official. My blue sleeve was wet.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

073

七言古诗

李商隐

韩碑

元和天子神武姿，彼何人哉轩与羲，

誓将上雪列圣耻，坐法宫中朝四夷。

淮西有贼五十载，封狼生貙貙生罴；

不据山河据平地，长戈利矛日可麾。

帝得圣相相曰度，贼斫不死神扶持。

腰悬相印作都统，阴风惨澹天王旗。

愬武古通作牙爪，仪曹外郎载笔随。

行军司马智且勇，十四万众犹虎貔。

入蔡缚贼献太庙。功无与让恩不訾。

帝曰汝度功第一，汝从事愈宜为辞。

愈拜稽首蹈且舞，金石刻画臣能为。

古者世称大手笔，此事不系于职司。

当仁自古有不让，言讫屡颔天子颐。

公退斋戒坐小阁，濡染大笔何淋漓。

点窜尧典舜典字，涂改清庙生民诗。

文成破体书在纸，清晨再拜铺丹墀。

表曰臣愈昧死上，咏神圣功书之碑。

碑高三丈字如斗，负以灵鳌蟠以螭。

句奇语重喻者少，谗之天子言其私。

长绳百尺拽碑倒。粗沙大石相磨治。

公之斯文若元气，先时已入人肝脾。

汤盘孔鼎有述作，今无其器存其辞。

呜呼圣皇及圣相，相与烜赫流淳熙。

公之斯文不示后，曷与三五相攀追？

愿书万本诵万过，口角流沫右手胝；

传之七十有二代，以为封禅玉检明堂基。

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seven-character-ancient-verse

Li Shangyin

THE HAN MONUMENT

The Son of Heaven in Yuanhe times was martial as a god

And might be likened only to the Emperors Xuan and Xi.

He took an oath to reassert the glory of the empire,

And tribute was brought to his palace from all four quarters.

Western Huai for fifty years had been a bandit country,

Wolves becoming lynxes, lynxes becoming bears.

They assailed the mountains and rivers, rising from the plains,

With their long spears and sharp lances aimed at the Sun.

But the Emperor had a wise premier, by the name of Du,

Who, guarded by spirits against assassination,

Hong at his girdle the seal of state, and accepted chief command,

While these savage winds were harrying the flags of the Ruler of Heaven.

Generals Suo, Wu, Gu, and Tong became his paws and claws;

Civil and military experts brought their writingbrushes,

And his recording adviser was wise and resolute.

A hundred and forty thousand soldiers, fighting like lions and tigers,

Captured the bandit chieftains for the Imperial Temple.

So complete a victory was a supreme event;

And the Emperor said: "To you, Du, should go the highest honour,

And your secretary, Yu, should write a record of it."

When Yu had bowed his head, he leapt and danced, saying:

"Historical writings on stone and metal are my especial art;

And, since I know the finest brush-work of the old masters,

My duty in this instance is more than merely official,

And I should be at fault if I modestly declined."

The Emperor, on hearing this, nodded many times.

And Yu retired and fasted and, in a narrow workroom,

His great brush thick with ink as with drops of rain,

Chose characters like those in the Canons of Yao and Xun,

And a style as in the ancient poems Qingmiao and Shengmin.

And soon the description was ready, on a sheet of paper.

In the morning he laid it, with a bow, on the purple stairs.

He memorialized the throne: "I, unworthy,

Have dared to record this exploit, for a monument."

The tablet was thirty feet high, the characters large as dippers;

It was set on a sacred tortoise, its columns flanked with ragons....

The phrases were strange with deep words that few could understand;

And jealousy entered and malice and reached the Emperor --

So that a rope a hundred feet long pulled the tablet down

And coarse sand and small stones ground away its face.

But literature endures, like the universal spirit,

And its breath becomes a part of the vitals of all men.

The Tang plate, the Confucian tripod, are eternal things,

Not because of their forms, but because of their inscriptions....

Sagacious is our sovereign and wise his minister,

And high their successes and prosperous their reign;

But unless it be recorded by a writing such as this,

How may they hope to rival the three and five good rulers?

I wish I could write ten thousand copies to read ten thousand times,

Till spittle ran from my lips and calluses hardened my fingers,

And still could hand them down, through seventy-two generations,

As corner-stones for Rooms of Great Deeds on the Sacred Mountains.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

074

乐府

高适

燕歌行并序

开元二十六年，客有从御史大夫张公出塞而还者，作燕歌行以示适，感征戍之事，因而和焉。

汉家烟尘在东北，汉将辞家破残贼。

男儿本自重横行，天子非常赐颜色。

摐金伐鼓下榆关，旌旆逶迤碣石间。

校尉羽书飞瀚海，单于猎火照狼山。

山川萧条极边土，胡骑凭陵杂风雨。

战士军前半死生，美人帐下犹歌舞。

大漠穷秋塞草衰，孤城落日斗兵稀。

身当恩遇常轻敌，力尽关山未解围。

铁衣远戍辛勤久，玉筋应啼别离后。

少妇城南欲断肠，征人蓟北空回首。

边庭飘飖那可度？绝域苍茫更何有？

杀气三时作阵云，寒声一夜传刁斗。

相看白刃血纷纷，死节从来岂顾勋。

君不见沙场征战苦？至今犹忆李将军。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Gao Shi

A SONG OF THE YAN COUNTRY

In the sixth year of Kaiyuan, a friend returned from the border and showed me the Yan Song. Moved by what he told me of the expedition, I have written this poem to the same rhymes.

The northeastern border of China was dark with smoke and dust.

To repel the savage invaders, our generals, leaving their families,

Strode forth together, looking as heroes should look;

And having received from the Emperor his most gracious favour,

They marched to the beat of gong and drum through the Elm Pass.

They circled the Stone Tablet with a line of waving flags,

Till their captains over the Sea of Sand were twanging feathered orders.

The Tartar chieftain's hunting-fires glimmered along Wolf Mountain,

And heights and rivers were cold and bleak there at the outer border;

But soon the barbarians' horses were plunging through wind and rain.

Half of our men at the front were killed, but the other half are living,

And still at the camp beautiful girls dance for them and sing.

...As autumn ends in the grey sand, with the grasses all withered,

The few surviving watchers by the lonely wall at sunset,

Serving in a good cause, hold life and the foeman lightly.

And yet, for all that they have done, Elm Pass is still unsafe.

Still at the front, iron armour is worn and battered thin,

And here at home food-sticks are made of jade tears.

Still in this southern city young wives' hearts are breaking,

While soldiers at the northern border vainly look toward home.

The fury of the wind cuts our men's advance

In a place of death and blue void, with nothingness ahead.

Three times a day a cloud of slaughter rises over the camp;

And all night long the hour-drums shake their chilly booming,

Until white swords can be seen again, spattered with red blood.

...When death becomes a duty, who stops to think of fame?

Yet in speaking of the rigours of warfare on the desert

We name to this day Li, the great General, who lived long ago.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

075

七言乐府

李颀

古从军行

白日登山望烽火，黄昏饮马傍交河。

行人刁斗风沙暗，公主琵琶幽怨多。

野云万里无城郭，雨雪纷纷连大漠。

胡雁哀鸣夜夜飞，胡儿眼泪双双落。

闻道玉门犹被遮，应将性命逐轻车。

年年战骨埋荒外，空见葡萄入汉家。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Qi

AN OLD WAR-SONG

Through the bright day up the mountain, we scan the sky for a war-torch;

At yellow dusk we water our horses in the boundaryriver;

And when the throb of watch-drums hangs in the sandy wind,

We hear the guitar of the Chinese Princess telling her endless woe....

Three thousand miles without a town, nothing but camps,

Till the heavy sky joins the wide desert in snow.

With their plaintive calls, barbarian wildgeese fly from night to night,

And children of the Tartars have many tears to shed;

But we hear that the Jade Pass is still under siege,

And soon we stake our lives upon our light warchariots.

Each year we bury in the desert bones unnumbered,

Yet we only watch for grape-vines coming into China.

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076

乐府

王维

洛阳女儿行

洛阳女儿对门居，才可容颜十五余；

良人玉勒乘骢马，侍女金盘脍鲤鱼。

画阁朱楼尽相望，红桃绿柳垂檐向。

罗帷送上七香车，宝扇迎归九华帐。

狂夫富贵在青春，意气骄奢剧季伦。

自怜碧玉亲教舞，不惜珊瑚持与人。

春窗曙灭九微火，九微片片飞花璅。

戏罢曾无理曲时，妆成祇是薰香坐。

城中相识尽繁华，日夜经过赵李家。

谁怜越女颜如玉？贫贱江头自浣纱。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Wang Wei

A SONG OF A GIRL FROM LOYANG

There's a girl from Loyang in the door across the street,

She looks fifteen, she may be a little older.

...While her master rides his rapid horse with jade bit an bridle,

Her handmaid brings her cod-fish in a golden plate.

On her painted pavilions, facing red towers,

Cornices are pink and green with peach-bloom and with willow,

Canopies of silk awn her seven-scented chair,

And rare fans shade her, home to her nine-flowered curtains.

Her lord, with rank and wealth and in the bud of life,

Exceeds in munificence the richest men of old.

He favours this girl of lowly birth, he has her taught to dance;

And he gives away his coral-trees to almost anyone.

The wind of dawn just stirs when his nine soft lights go out,

Those nine soft lights like petals in a flying chain of flowers.

Between dances she has barely time for singing over the songs;

No sooner is she dressed again than incense burns before her.

Those she knows in town are only the rich and the lavish,

And day and night she is visiting the hosts of the gayest mansions.

...Who notices the girl from Yue with a face of white jade,

Humble, poor, alone, by the river, washing silk?

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077

乐府

王维

老将行

少年十五二十时，步行夺得胡马骑。

射杀山中白额虎，肯数邺下黄须儿。

一身转战三千里，一剑曾当百万师。

汉兵奋迅如霹雳，虏骑崩腾畏蒺藜。

卫青不败由天幸，李广无功缘数奇。

自从弃置便衰朽，世事蹉跎成白首。

昔时飞箭无全目，今日垂杨生左肘。

路旁时卖故侯瓜，门前学种先生柳。

苍茫古木连穷巷，寥落寒山对虚牖。

誓令疏勒出飞泉，不似颍川空使酒。

贺兰山下阵如云，羽檄交驰日夕闻。

节使三河募年少，诏书五道出将军。

试拂铁衣如雪色，聊持宝剑动星文。

愿得燕弓射大将，耻令越甲鸣吾君。

莫嫌旧日云中守，犹堪一战取功勋。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Wang Wei

SONG OF AN OLD GENERAL

When he was a youth of fifteen or twenty,

He chased a wild horse, he caught him and rode him,

He shot the white-browed mountain tiger,

He defied the yellow-bristled Horseman of Ye.

Fighting single- handed for a thousand miles,

With his naked dagger he could hold a multitude.

...Granted that the troops of China were as swift as heaven's thunder

And that Tartar soldiers perished in pitfalls fanged with iron,

General Wei Qing's victory was only a thing of chance.

And General Li Guang's thwarted effort was his fate, not his fault.

Since this man's retirement he is looking old and worn:

Experience of the world has hastened his white hairs.

Though once his quick dart never missed the right eye of a bird,

Now knotted veins and tendons make his left arm like an osier.

He is sometimes at the road-side selling melons from his garden,

He is sometimes planting willows round his hermitage.

His lonely lane is shut away by a dense grove,

His vacant window looks upon the far cold mountains

But, if he prayed, the waters would come gushing for his men

And never would he wanton his cause away with wine.

...War-clouds are spreading, under the Helan Range;

Back and forth, day and night, go feathered messages;

In the three River Provinces, the governors call young men --

And five imperial edicts have summoned the old general.

So he dusts his iron coat and shines it like snow-

Waves his dagger from its jade hilt in a dance of starry steel.

He is ready with his strong northern bow to smite the Tartar chieftain --

That never a foreign war-dress may affront the Emperor.

...There once was an aged Prefect, forgotten and far away,

Who still could manage triumph with a single stroke.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

078

乐府

王维

桃源行

渔舟逐水爱山春，两岸桃花夹古津。

坐看红树不知远，行尽青溪不见人。

山口潜行始隈隩，山开旷望旋平陆。

遥看一处攒云树，近入千家散花竹。

樵客初传汉姓名，居人未改秦衣服。

居人共住武陵源，还从物外起田园。

月明松下房栊静，日出云中鸡犬喧。

惊闻俗客争来集，竞引还家问都邑。

平明闾巷扫花开，薄暮渔樵乘水入。

初因避地去人间，及至成仙遂不还。

峡里谁知有人事，世中遥望空云山。

不疑灵境难闻见，尘心未尽思乡县。

出洞无论隔山水，辞家终拟长游衍。

自谓经过旧不迷，安知峰壑今来变。

当时只记入山深，青溪几曲到云林？

春来遍是桃花水，不辨仙源何处寻？

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Wang Wei

A SONG OF PEACH-BLOSSOM RIVER

A fisherman is drifting, enjoying the spring mountains,

And the peach-trees on both banks lead him to an ancient source.

Watching the fresh-coloured trees, he never thinks of distance

Till he comes to the end of the blue stream and suddenly- strange men!

It's a cave-with a mouth so narrow that he has to crawl through;

But then it opens wide again on a broad and level path --

And far beyond he faces clouds crowning a reach of trees,

And thousands of houses shadowed round with flowers and bamboos....

Woodsmen tell him their names in the ancient speech of Han;

And clothes of the Qin Dynasty are worn by all these people

Living on the uplands, above the Wuling River,

On farms and in gardens that are like a world apart,

Their dwellings at peace under pines in the clear moon,

Until sunrise fills the low sky with crowing and barking.

...At news of a stranger the people all assemble,

And each of them invites him home and asks him where he was born.

Alleys and paths are cleared for him of petals in the morning,

And fishermen and farmers bring him their loads at dusk....

They had left the world long ago, they had come here seeking refuge;

They have lived like angels ever since, blessedly far away,

No one in the cave knowing anything outside,

Outsiders viewing only empty mountains and thick clouds.

...The fisherman, unaware of his great good fortune,

Begins to think of country, of home, of worldly ties,

Finds his way out of the cave again, past mountains and past rivers,

Intending some time to return, when he has told his kin.

He studies every step he takes, fixes it well in mind,

And forgets that cliffs and peaks may vary their appearance.

...It is certain that to enter through the deepness of the mountain,

A green river leads you, into a misty wood.

But now, with spring-floods everywhere and floating peachpetals --

Which is the way to go, to find that hidden source?

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079

乐府

李白

蜀道难

噫吁戏，危乎高哉！

蜀道之难难于上青天！

蚕丛及鱼凫，开国何茫然。

尔来四万八千岁，始与秦塞通人烟。

西当太白有鸟道，可以横绝峨眉巅。

地崩山摧壮士死，然后天梯石栈方钩连。

上有六龙回日之高标，下有冲波逆折之回川。

黄鹤之飞尚不得，猿猱欲度愁攀援。

青泥何盘盘，百步九折萦岩峦，

扪参历井仰胁息，以手抚膺坐长叹。

问君西游何时还？畏途巉岩不可攀。

但见悲鸟号古木，雄飞雌从绕林间；

又闻子规啼，夜月愁空山。

蜀道之难难于上青天！

使人听此凋朱颜。

连峰去天不盈尺，枯松倒挂倚绝壁。

飞湍瀑流争喧豗，砯崖转石万壑雷。

其险也如此！嗟尔远道之人，

胡为乎来哉？剑阁峥嵘而崔嵬，

一夫当关，万夫莫开；

所守或匪亲，化为狼与豺，

朝避猛虎，夕避长蛇，

磨牙吮血，杀人如麻。

锦城虽云乐，不如早还家。

蜀道之难难于上青天，侧身西望常咨嗟。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

HARD ROADS IN SHU

Oh, but it is high and very dangerous!

Such travelling is harder than scaling the blue sky.

...Until two rulers of this region

Pushed their way through in the misty ages,

Forty-eight thousand years had passed

With nobody arriving across the Qin border.

And the Great White Mountain, westward, still has only a bird's path

Up to the summit of Emei Peak --

Which was broken once by an earthquake and there were brave men lost,

Just finishing the stone rungs of their ladder toward heaven.

...High, as on a tall flag, six dragons drive the sun,

While the river, far below, lashes its twisted course.

Such height would be hard going for even a yellow crane,

So pity the poor monkeys who have only paws to use.

The Mountain of Green Clay is formed of many circles-

Each hundred steps, we have to turn nine turns among its mound --

Panting, we brush Orion and pass the Well Star,

Then, holding our chests with our hands and sinking to the ground with a groan,

We wonder if this westward trail will never have an end.

The formidable path ahead grows darker, darker still,

With nothing heard but the call of birds hemmed in by the ancient forest,

Male birds smoothly wheeling, following the females;

And there come to us the melancholy voices of the cuckoos

Out on the empty mountain, under the lonely moon....

Such travelling is harder than scaling the blue sky.

Even to hear of it turns the cheek pale,

With the highest crag barely a foot below heaven.

Dry pines hang, head down, from the face of the cliffs,

And a thousand plunging cataracts outroar one another

And send through ten thousand valleys a thunder of spinning stones.

With all this danger upon danger,

Why do people come here who live at a safe distance?

...Though Dagger-Tower Pass be firm and grim,

And while one man guards it

Ten thousand cannot force it,

What if he be not loyal,

But a wolf toward his fellows?

...There are ravenous tigers to fear in the day

And venomous reptiles in the night

With their teeth and their fangs ready

To cut people down like hemp.

Though the City of Silk be delectable, I would rather turn home quickly.

Such travelling is harder than scaling the blue sky....

But I still face westward with a dreary moan.

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080

乐府

李白

长相思之一

长相思，在长安。

络纬秋啼金井阑，微霜凄凄簟色寒。

孤灯不明思欲绝，卷帷望月空长叹。

美人如花隔云端，上有青冥之长天，

下有渌水之波澜。

天长路远魂飞苦，梦魂不到关山难。

长相思，摧心肝。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

ENDLESS YEARNING I

"I am endlessly yearning

To be in Changan.

...Insects hum of autumn by the gold brim of the well;

A thin frost glistens like little mirrors on my cold mat;

The high lantern flickers; and. deeper grows my longing.

I lift the shade and, with many a sigh, gaze upon the moon,

Single as a flower, centred from the clouds.

Above, I see the blueness and deepness of sky.

Below, I see the greenness and the restlessness of water....

Heaven is high, earth wide; bitter between them flies my sorrow.

Can I dream through the gateway, over the mountain?

Endless longing

Breaks my heart."

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081

乐府

李白

长相思之二

日色已尽花含烟，月明欲素愁不眠。

赵瑟初停凤凰柱，蜀琴欲奏鸳鸯弦。

此曲有意无人传，愿随春风寄燕然。

忆君迢迢隔青天，昔日横波目，

今成流泪泉。

不信妾肠断，归来看取明镜前。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

ENDLESS YEARNING II

"The sun has set, and a mist is in the flowers;

And the moon grows very white and people sad and sleepless.

A Zhao harp has just been laid mute on its phoenix holder,

And a Shu lute begins to sound its mandarin-duck strings....

Since nobody can bear to you the burden of my song,

Would that it might follow the spring wind to Yanran Mountain.

I think of you far away, beyond the blue sky,

And my eyes that once were sparkling

Are now a well of tears.

...Oh, if ever you should doubt this aching of my heart,

Here in my bright mirror come back and look at me!"

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082

乐府

李白

行路难之一

金樽清酒斗十千，玉盘珍羞值万钱。

停杯投箸不能食，拔剑四顾心茫然。

欲渡黄河冰塞川，将登太行雪暗天。

闲来垂钓碧溪上，忽复乘舟梦日边。

行路难！行路难！

多歧路，今安在？

长风破浪会有时，直挂云帆济沧海。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

THE HARD ROAD

Pure wine costs, for the golden cup, ten thousand coppers a flagon,

And a jade plate of dainty food calls for a million coins.

I fling aside my food-sticks and cup, I cannot eat nor drink....

I pull out my dagger, I peer four ways in vain.

I would cross the Yellow River, but ice chokes the ferry;

I would climb the Taihang Mountains, but the sky is blind with snow....

I would sit and poise a fishing-pole, lazy by a brook --

But I suddenly dream of riding a boat, sailing for the sun....

Journeying is hard,

Journeying is hard.

There are many turnings --

Which am I to follow?....

I will mount a long wind some day and break the heavy waves

And set my cloudy sail straight and bridge the deep, deep sea.

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083

乐府

李白

行路难之二

大道如青天，我独不得出。

羞逐长安社中儿，赤鸡白狗赌梨栗。

弹剑作歌奏苦声，曳裾王门不称情。

淮阴市井笑韩信，汉朝公卿忌贾生。

君不见，昔时燕家重郭隗，

拥彗折节无嫌猜；

剧辛乐毅感恩分，输肝剖胆效英才。

昭王白骨萦蔓草，谁人更扫黄金台？

行路难，归去来？

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

HARD IS THE WAY OF THE WORLD II

The way is broad like the blue sky,

But no way out before my eye.

I am ashamed to follow those who have no guts,

Gambling on fighting cocks and dogs for pears and nuts.

Feng would go homeward way, having no fish to eat;

Zhou did not think to bow to noblemen was meet.

General Han was mocked in the market-place;

The brilliant scholar Jia was banished in disgrace.

Have you not heard of King of Yan in days gone by,

Who venerated talents and built Terrace high

On which he offered gold to gifted men

And stooped low and swept the floor to welcome them?

Grateful, Ju Xin and Yue Yi came then

And served him heart and soul, both full of stratagem.

The King's bones were now buried,

who would sweep the floor of the Gold Terrace any more?

Hard is the way.

Go back without delay!

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084

乐府

李白

行路难之三

有耳莫洗颍川水，有口莫食首阳蕨。

含光混世贵无名，何用孤高比云月？

吾观自古贤达人，功成不退皆殒身。

子胥既弃吴江上，屈原终投湘水滨。

陆机雄才岂自保？李斯税驾苦不早。

华亭鹤唳讵可闻？上蔡苍鹰何足道。

君不见，吴中张翰称达生，

秋风忽忆江东行。

且乐生前一杯酒，何须身后千载名？

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

HARD IS THE WAY OF THE WORLD III

Don't wash your ears on hearing something you dislike

Nor die of hunger like famous hermits on the Pike!

Living without a fame among the motley crowd,

Why should one be as lofty as the moon or cloud?

Of ancient talents who failed to retire, there's none

But came to tragic ending after glory's won.

The head of General Wu was hung o'er city gate;

In the river was drowned the poet laureate.

The highly talented scholar wished in vain

To preserve his life to hear the cry of the crane.

Minister Li regretted not to have retired

To hunt with falcon gray as he had long desired.

Have you not heard of Zhang Han who resigned, carefree,

To go home to eat his perch with high glee?

Enjoy a cup of wine while you're alive!

Do not care if your fame will not survive!

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085

乐府

李白

将进酒

君不见，黄河之水天上来，

奔流到海不复回？

君不见，高堂明镜悲白发，

朝如青丝暮成雪？人生得意须尽欢，

莫使金樽空对月，天生我材必有用，

千金散尽还复来。

烹羊宰牛且为乐，会须一饮三百杯。

岑夫子！丹丘生！

将进酒；君莫停。

与君歌一曲，请君为我侧耳听。

钟鼓馔玉不足贵，但愿长醉不愿醒。

古来圣贤皆寂寞，惟有饮者留其名。

陈王昔时宴平乐，斗酒十千恣欢谑。

主人何为言少钱？径须沽取对君酌。

五花马，千金裘。

呼儿将出换美酒，与尔同消万古愁。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

BRINGING IN THE WINE

See how the Yellow River's waters move out of heaven.

Entering the ocean, never to return.

See how lovely locks in bright mirrors in high chambers,

Though silken-black at morning, have changed by night to snow.

...Oh, let a man of spirit venture where he pleases

And never tip his golden cup empty toward the moon!

Since heaven gave the talent, let it be employed!

Spin a thousand pieces of silver, all of them come back!

Cook a sheep, kill a cow, whet the appetite,

And make me, of three hundred bowls, one long drink!

...To the old master, Cen,

And the young scholar, Danqiu,

Bring in the wine!

Let your cups never rest!

Let me sing you a song!

Let your ears attend!

What are bell and drum, rare dishes and treasure?

Let me be forever drunk and never come to reason!

Sober men of olden days and sages are forgotten,

And only the great drinkers are famous for all time.

...Prince Chen paid at a banquet in the Palace of Perfection

Ten thousand coins for a cask of wine, with many a laugh and quip.

Why say, my host, that your money is gone?

Go and buy wine and we'll drink it together!

My flower-dappled horse,

My furs worth a thousand,

Hand them to the boy to exchange for good wine,

And we'll drown away the woes of ten thousand generations!

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086

乐府

杜甫

兵车行

车辚辚，马萧萧，

行人弓箭各在腰。

耶娘妻子走相送，尘埃不见咸阳桥。

牵衣顿足拦道哭，哭声直上干云霄。

道旁过者问行人，行人但云点行频。

或从十五北防河，便至四十西营田。

去时里正与裹头，归来头白还戍边。

边亭流血成海水，武皇开边意未已。

君不闻，汉家山东二百州，

千村万落生荆杞？

纵有健妇把锄犁，禾生陇亩无东西。

况复秦兵耐苦战，被驱不异犬与鸡。

长者虽有问，役夫敢申恨；

且如今年冬，未休关西卒。

县官急索租，租税从何出？

信知生男恶，反是生女好；

生女犹得嫁比邻，生男埋没随百草。

君不见，青海头，

古来白骨无人收？

新鬼烦冤旧鬼哭，天阴雨湿声啾啾。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Du Fu

A SONG OF WAR-CHARIOTS

The war-chariots rattle,

The war-horses whinny.

Each man of you has a bow and a quiver at his belt.

Father, mother, son, wife, stare at you going,

Till dust shall have buried the bridge beyond Changan.

They run with you, crying, they tug at your sleeves,

And the sound of their sorrow goes up to the clouds;

And every time a bystander asks you a question,

You can only say to him that you have to go.

...We remember others at fifteen sent north to guard the river

And at forty sent west to cultivate the campfarms.

The mayor wound their turbans for them when they started out.

With their turbaned hair white now, they are still at the border,

At the border where the blood of men spills like the sea --

And still the heart of Emperor Wu is beating for war.

...Do you know that, east of China's mountains, in two hundred districts

And in thousands of villages, nothing grows but weeds,

And though strong women have bent to the ploughing,

East and west the furrows all are broken down?

...Men of China are able to face the stiffest battle,

But their officers drive them like chickens and dogs.

Whatever is asked of them,

Dare they complain?

For example, this winter

Held west of the gate,

Challenged for taxes,

How could they pay?

...We have learned that to have a son is bad luck-

It is very much better to have a daughter

Who can marry and live in the house of a neighbour,

While under the sod we bury our boys.

...Go to the Blue Sea, look along the shore

At all the old white bones forsaken --

New ghosts are wailing there now with the old,

Loudest in the dark sky of a stormy day.

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087

乐府

杜甫

丽人行

三月三日天气新，长安水边多丽人。

态浓意远淑且真，肌理细腻骨肉匀。

绣罗衣裳照暮春，蹙金孔雀银麒麟。

头上何所有？翠微盍叶垂鬓唇。

背后何所见？珠压腰衱稳称身。

就中云幕椒房亲，赐名大国虢与秦。

紫驼之峰出翠釜，水精之盘行素鳞。

犀箸餍饫久未下，鸾刀缕切空纷纶。

黄门飞鞚不动尘，御厨络绎送八珍。

箫鼓哀吟感鬼神，宾从杂遝实要津。

后来鞍马何逡巡？当轩下马入锦茵。

杨花雪落覆白苹，青鸟飞去衔红巾。

炙手可热势绝伦，慎莫近前丞相嗔。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Du Fu

A SONG OF FAIR WOMEN

On the third day of the Third-month in the freshening weather

Many beauties take the air by the Changan waterfront,

Receptive, aloof, sweet-mannered, sincere,

With soft fine skin and well-balanced bone.

Their embroidered silk robes in the spring sun are gleaming --

With a mass of golden peacocks and silver unicorns.

And hanging far down from their temples

Are blue leaves of delicate kingfisher feathers.

And following behind them

Is a pearl-laden train, rhythmic with bearers.

Some of them are kindred to the Royal House --

The titled Princesses Guo and Qin.

Red camel-humps are brought them from jade broilers,

And sweet fish is ordered them on crystal trays.

Though their food-sticks of unicorn-horn are lifted languidly

And the finely wrought phoenix carving-knife is very little used,

Fleet horses from the Yellow Gate, stirring no dust,

Bring precious dishes constantly from the imperial kitchen.

...While a solemn sound of flutes and drums invokes gods and spirits,

Guests and courtiers gather, all of high rank;

And finally, riding slow, a dignified horseman

Dismounts at the pavilion on an embroidered rug.

In a snow of flying willow-cotton whitening the duckweed,

Bluebirds find their way with vermilion handkerchiefs --

But power can be as hot as flame and burn people's fingers.

Be wary of the Premier, watch for his frown.

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088

乐府

杜甫

哀江头

少陵野老吞生哭，春日潜行曲江曲；

江头宫殿锁千门，细柳新蒲为谁绿？

忆昔霓旌下南苑；苑中景物生颜色。

昭阳殿里第一人，同辇随君侍君侧。

辇前才人带弓箭，白马嚼啮黄金勒。

翻身向天仰射云，一箭正坠双飞翼。

明眸皓齿今何在？血污游魂归不得。

清渭东流剑阁深，去住彼此无消息。

人生有情泪沾臆，江水江花岂终极？

黄昏胡骑尘满城，欲往城南望城北。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Du Fu

A SONG OF SOBBING BY THE RIVER

I am only an old woodsman, whispering a sob,

As I steal like a spring-shadow down the Winding River.

...Since the palaces ashore are sealed by a thousand gates --

Fine willows, new rushes, for whom are you so green?

...I remember a cloud of flags that came from the South Garden,

And ten thousand colours, heightening one another,

And the Kingdom's first Lady, from the Palace of the Bright Sun,

Attendant on the Emperor in his royal chariot,

And the horsemen before them, each with bow and arrows,

And the snowy horses, champing at bits of yellow gold,

And an archer, breast skyward, shooting through the clouds

And felling with one dart a pair of flying birds.

...Where are those perfect eyes, where are those pearly teeth?

A blood-stained spirit has no home, has nowhere to return.

And clear Wei waters running east, through the cleft on Dagger- Tower Trail,

Carry neither there nor here any news of her.

People, compassionate, are wishing with tears

That she were as eternal as the river and the flowers.

...Mounted Tartars, in the yellow twilight, cloud the town with dust.

I am fleeing south, but I linger-gazing northward toward the throne.

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089

乐府

杜甫

哀王孙

长安城头头白乌，夜飞延秋门上呼；

又向人家啄大屋，屋底达官走避胡。

金鞭断折九马死，骨肉不待同驰驱。

腰下宝玦青珊瑚，问之不肯道姓名，

但道困苦乞为奴。

已经百日窜荆棘，身上无有完肌肤。

高帝子孙尽隆准，龙种自与常人殊。

豺狼在邑龙在野，王孙善保千金躯。

不敢长语临交衢，且为王孙立斯须。

昨夜东风吹血腥，东来橐驼满旧都。

朔方健儿好身手，昔何勇锐今何愚？

窃闻天子已传位，圣德北服南单于。

花门剺面请雪耻，慎勿出口他人狙。

哀哉王孙慎勿疏，五陵佳气无时无。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Du Fu

A SONG OF A PRINCE DEPOSED

Along the wall of the Capital a white-headed crow

Flies to the Gate where Autumn Enters and screams there in the night,

Then turns again and pecks among the roofs of a tall mansion

Whose lord, a mighty mandarin, has fled before the Tartars,

With his golden whip now broken, his nine war-horses dead

And his own flesh and bone scattered to the winds....

There's a rare ring of green coral underneath the vest

Of a Prince at a street-corner, bitterly sobbing,

Who has to give a false name to anyone who asks him-

Just a poor fellow, hoping for employment.

A hundred days' hiding in grasses and thorns

Show on his body from head to foot.

But, since their first Emperor, all with hooknoses,

These Dragons look different from ordinary men.

Wolves are in the palace now and Dragons are lost in the desert --

O Prince, be very careful of your most sacred person!

I dare not address you long, here by the open road,

Nor even to stand beside you for more than these few moments.

Last night with the spring-wind there came a smell of blood;

The old Capital is full of camels from the east.

Our northern warriors are sound enough of body and of hand --

Oh, why so brave in olden times and so craven now?

Our Emperor, we hear, has given his son the throne

And the southern border-chieftains are loyally inclined

And the Huamen and Limian tribes are gathering to avenge us.

But still be careful-keep yourself well hidden from the dagger.

Unhappy Prince, I beg you, be constantly on guard --

Till power blow to your aid from the Five Imperial Tombs.

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090

五言律诗

唐玄宗

经邹鲁祭孔子而叹之

夫子何为者，栖栖一代中。

地犹鄹氏邑，宅即鲁王宫。

叹凤嗟身否，伤麟怨道穷。

今看两楹奠，当与梦时同。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Tang Xunzong

I PASS THROUGH THE LU DUKEDOM

WITH A SIGH AND A SACRIFICE FOR CONFUCIUS

O Master, how did the world repay

Your life of long solicitude? --

The Lords of Zou have misprized your land,

And your home has been used as the palace of Lu....

You foretold that when phoenixes vanished, your fortunes too would end,

You knew that the captured unicorn would be a sign of the dose of your teaching....

Can this sacrifice I watch, here between two temple pillars,

Be the selfsame omen of death you dreamed of long ago?

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091

五言律诗

张九龄

望月怀远

海上生明月，天涯共此时。

情人怨遥夜，竟夕起相思。

灭烛怜光满，披衣觉露滋。

不堪盈手赠，还寝梦佳期。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Zhang Jiuling

LOOKING AT THE MOON

AND THINKING OF ONE FAR AWAY

The moon, grown full now over the sea,

Brightening the whole of heaven,

Brings to separated hearts

The long thoughtfulness of night....

It is no darker though I blow out my candle.

It is no warmer though I put on my coat.

So I leave my message with the moon

And turn to my bed, hoping for dreams.

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092

五言律诗

王勃

送杜少府之任蜀州

城阙辅三秦，风烟望五津。

与君离别意，同是宦游人。

海内存知己，天涯若比邻。

无为在歧路，儿女共沾巾。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Wang Bo

FAREWELL TO VICE-PREFECT DU

SETTING OUT FOR HIS OFFICIAL POST IN SHU

By this wall that surrounds the three Qin districts,

Through a mist that makes five rivers one,

We bid each other a sad farewell,

We two officials going opposite ways....

And yet, while China holds our friendship,

And heaven remains our neighbourhood,

Why should you linger at the fork of the road,

Wiping your eyes like a heart-broken child?

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093

五言律诗

骆宾王

在狱咏蝉并序

余禁所禁垣西，是法厅事也。有古槐数株焉，虽生意可知，同殷仲文之古树，而听讼斯在，即周召伯之甘棠。每至夕照低阴，秋蝉疏引，发声幽息，有切尝闻；岂人心异于曩时，将虫响悲于前听？嗟乎！声以动容，德以象贤，故洁其身也，禀君子达人之高行；蜕其皮也，有仙都羽化之灵姿。候时而来，顺阴阳之数；应节为变，审藏用之机。有目斯开，不以道昏而昧其视；有翼自薄，不以俗厚而易其真。吟乔树之微风，韵资天纵；饮高秋之坠露，清畏人知。仆失路艰虞，遭时徽纆，不哀伤而自怨，未摇落而先衰。闻蟪蛄之流声，悟平反之已奏；见螳螂之抱影，怯危机之未安。感而缀诗，贻诸知己。庶情沿物应，哀弱羽之飘零；道寄人知，悯余声之寂寞。非谓文墨，取代幽忧云尔。

西路蝉声唱，南冠客思侵。

那堪玄鬓影，来对白头吟。

露重飞难进，风多响易沉。

无人信高洁，谁为表予心。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Lo Bingwang

A POLITICAL PRISONER LISTENING TO A CICADA

While the year sinks westward, I hear a cicada

Bid me to be resolute here in my cell,

Yet it needed the song of those black wings

To break a white-haired prisoner's heart....

His flight is heavy through the fog,

His pure voice drowns in the windy world.

Who knows if he be singing still? - -

Who listens any more to me?

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094

五言律诗

杜审言

和晋陵路丞早春游望

独有宦游人，偏惊物候新。

云霞出海曙，梅柳渡江春。

淑气催黄鸟，晴光转绿苹。

忽闻歌古调，归思欲沾巾。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Du Shenyan

ON A WALK IN THE EARLY SPRING

HARMONIZING A POEM BY MY FRIEND LU

STATIONED AT CHANGZHOU

Only to wanderers can come

Ever new the shock of beauty,

Of white cloud and red cloud dawning from the sea,

Of spring in the wild-plum and river-willow....

I watch a yellow oriole dart in the warm air,

And a green water- plant reflected by the sun.

Suddenly an old song fills

My heart with home, my eyes with tears.

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095

五言律诗

沈佺期

杂诗

闻道黄龙戍，频年不解兵。

可怜闺里月，长在汉家营。

少妇今春意，良人昨夜情。

谁能将旗鼓，一为取龙城？

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Five-character-regular-verse

Shen Quanqi

LINES

Against the City of the Yellow Dragon

Our troops were sent long years ago,

And girls here watch the same melancholy moon

That lights our Chinese warriors --

And young wives dream a dream of spring,

That last night their heroic husbands,

In a great attack, with flags and drums,

Captured the City of the Yellow Dragon.

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096

五言律诗

宋之问

题大庾岭北驿

阳月南飞雁，传闻至此回，

我行殊未已，何日复归来？

江静潮初落，林昏瘴不开。

明朝望乡处，应见陇头梅。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Song Zhiwen

INSCRIBED ON THE WALL OF AN INN

NORTH OF DAYU MOUNTAIN

They say that wildgeese, flying southward,

Here turn back, this very month....

Shall my own southward journey

Ever be retraced, I wonder?

...The river is pausing at ebb-tide,

And the woods are thick with clinging mist --

But tomorrow morning, over the mountain,

Dawn will be white with the plum-trees of home.

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097

五言律诗

王湾

次北固山下

客路青山外，行舟绿水前。

潮平两岸阔，风正一帆悬。

海日生残夜，江春入旧年。

乡书何处达？归雁洛阳边。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Wang Wan

A MOORING UNDER NORTH FORT HILL

Under blue mountains we wound our way,

My boat and 1, along green water;

Until the banks at low tide widened,

With no wind stirring my lone sail.

...Night now yields to a sea of sun,

And the old year melts in freshets.

At last I can send my messengers --

Wildgeese, homing to Loyang.

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098

五言律诗

常建

题破山寺后禅院

清晨入古寺，初日照高林。

曲径通幽处，禅房花木深。

山光悦鸟性，潭影空人心。

万籁此俱寂，惟余钟磬音。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Chang Jian

A BUDDHIST RETREAT BEHIND BROKEN-MOUNTAIN TEMPLE

In the pure morning, near the old temple,

Where early sunlight points the tree-tops,

My path has wound, through a sheltered hollow

Of boughs and flowers, to a Buddhist retreat.

Here birds are alive with mountain-light,

And the mind of man touches peace in a pool,

And a thousand sounds are quieted

By the breathing of a temple-bell.

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099

五言律诗

岑参

寄左省杜拾遗

联步趋丹陛，分曹限紫微。

晓随天仗入，暮惹御香归。

白发悲花落，青云羡鸟飞。

圣朝无阙事，自觉谏书稀。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Cen Can

A MESSAGE TO CENSOR Du Fu

AT HIS OFFICE IN THE LEFT COURT

Together we officials climbed vermilion steps,

To be parted by the purple walls....

Our procession, which entered the palace at dawn,

Leaves fragrant now at dusk with imperial incense.

...Grey heads may grieve for a fallen flower,

Or blue clouds envy a lilting bird;

But this reign is of heaven, nothing goes wrong,

There have been almost no petitions.

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100

五言律诗

李白

赠孟浩然

吾爱孟夫子，风流天下闻。

红颜弃轩冕，白首卧松云。

醉月频中圣，迷花不事君。

高山安可仰？徒此挹清芬。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Li Bai

A MESSAGE TO MENG HAORAN

Master, I hail you from my heart,

And your fame arisen to the skies....

Renouncing in ruddy youth the importance of hat and chariot,

You chose pine-trees and clouds; and now, whitehaired,

Drunk with the moon, a sage of dreams,

Flower- bewitched, you are deaf to the Emperor....

High mountain, how I long to reach you,

Breathing your sweetness even here!

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101

五言律诗

李白

渡荆门送别

渡远荆门外，来从楚国游。

山随平野尽，江入大荒流。

月下飞天镜，云生结海楼。

仍怜故乡水，万里送行舟。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Li Bai

BIDDING A FRIEND FAREWELL AT JINGMEN FERRY

Sailing far off from Jingmen Ferry,

Soon you will be with people in the south,

Where the mountains end and the plains begin

And the river winds through wilderness....

The moon is lifted like a mirror,

Sea-clouds gleam like palaces,

And the water has brought you a touch of home

To draw your boat three hundred miles.

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102

五言律诗

李白

送友人

青山横北郭，白水绕东城。

此地一为别，孤蓬万里征。

浮云游子意，落日故人情。

挥手自兹去，萧萧班马鸣。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Li Bai

A FAREWELL TO A FRIEND

With a blue line of mountains north of the wall,

And east of the city a white curve of water,

Here you must leave me and drift away

Like a loosened water-plant hundreds of miles....

I shall think of you in a floating cloud;

So in the sunset think of me.

...We wave our hands to say good-bye,

And my horse is neighing again and again.

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103

五言律诗

李白

听蜀僧浚弹琴

蜀僧抱绿绮，西下峨眉峰；

为我一挥手，如听万壑松。

客心洗流水，余响入霜钟。

不觉碧山暮，秋云暗几重？

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Five-character-regular-verse

Li Bai

ON HEARING JUN THE BUDDHIST MONK

FROM SHU PLAY HIS LUTE

The monk from Shu with his green silk lute-case,

Walking west down Omei Mountain,

Has brought me by one touch of the strings

The breath of pines in a thousand valleys.

I hear him in the cleansing brook,

I hear him in the icy bells;

And I feel no change though the mountain darken

And cloudy autumn heaps the sky.

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104

五言律诗

李白

夜泊牛渚怀古

牛渚西江夜，青天无片云；

登舟望秋月，空忆谢将军。

余亦能高咏，斯人不可闻。

明朝挂帆席，枫叶落纷纷。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Li Bai

THOUGHTS OF OLD TIME FROM A NIGHT-MOORING

UNDER MOUNT NIU-ZHU

This night to the west of the river-brim

There is not one cloud in the whole blue sky,

As I watch from my deck the autumn moon,

Vainly remembering old General Xie....

I have poems; I can read;

He heard others, but not mine.

...Tomorrow I shall hoist my sail,

With fallen maple-leaves behind me.

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105

五言律诗

杜甫

月夜

今夜鄜州月，闺中只独看。

遥怜小儿女，未解忆长安。

香雾云鬟湿，清辉玉臂寒。

何时倚虚幌，双照泪痕乾。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

ON A MOONLIGHT NIGHT

Far off in Fuzhou she is watching the moonlight,

Watching it alone from the window of her chamber-

For our boy and girl, poor little babes,

Are too young to know where the Capital is.

Her cloudy hair is sweet with mist,

Her jade-white shoulder is cold in the moon.

...When shall we lie again, with no more tears,

Watching this bright light on our screen?

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106

五言律诗

杜甫

春望

国破山河在，城春草木深。

感时花溅泪，恨别鸟惊心。

烽火连三月，家书抵万金。

白头搔更短，浑欲不胜簪。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

A SPRING VIEW

Though a country be sundered, hills and rivers endure;

And spring comes green again to trees and grasses

Where petals have been shed like tears

And lonely birds have sung their grief.

...After the war-fires of three months,

One message from home is worth a ton of gold.

...I stroke my white hair. It has grown too thin

To hold the hairpins any more.

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107

五言律诗

杜甫

春宿左省

花隐掖垣暮，啾啾栖鸟过。

星临万户动，月傍九霄多。

不寝听金钥，因风想玉珂。

明朝有封事，数问夜如何。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

A NIGHT-VIGIL IN THE LEFT COURT OF THE PALACE

Flowers are shadowed, the palace darkens,

Birds twitter by for a place to perch;

Heaven's ten thousand windows are twinkling,

And nine cloud-terraces are gleaming in the moonlight.

...While I wait for the golden lock to turn,

I hear jade pendants tinkling in the wind....

I have a petition to present in the morning,

All night I ask what time it is.

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108

五言律诗

杜甫

至德二载甫自京金光门出，问道归凤翔。乾元初从左拾遗移华州掾。与亲故别，因出此门。有悲往事。

此道昔归顺，西郊胡正繁。

至今残破胆，应有未招魂。

近得归京邑，移官岂至尊。

无才日衰老，驻马望千门。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

TAKING LEAVE OF FRIENDS ON MY WAY TO HUAZHOU

In the second year of Zhide, I escaped from the capital through the Gate of Golden Light and went to Fengxiang. In the first year of Qianyuan, I was appointed as official to Huazhou from my former post of Censor. Friends and relatives gathered and saw me leave by the same gate. And I wrote this poem.

This is the road by which I fled,

When the rebels had reached the west end of the city;

And terror, ever since, has clutched at my vitals

Lest some of my soul should never return.

...The court has come back now, filling the capital;

But the Emperor sends me away again.

Useless and old, I rein in my horse

For one last look at the thousand gates.

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109

五言律诗

杜甫

月夜忆舍弟

戍鼓断人行，秋边一雁声。

露从今夜白，月是故乡明。

有弟皆分散，无家问死生。

寄书长不达，况乃未休兵。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

REMEMBERING MY BROTHERS ON A MOONLIGHT NIGHT

A wanderer hears drums portending battle.

By the first call of autumn from a wildgoose at the border,

He knows that the dews tonight will be frost.

...How much brighter the moonlight is at home!

O my brothers, lost and scattered,

What is life to me without you?

Yet if missives in time of peace go wrong --

What can I hope for during war?

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110

五言律诗

杜甫

天末怀李白

凉风起天末，君子意如何。

鸿雁几时到，江湖秋水多。

文章憎命达，魑魅喜人过。

应共冤魂语，投诗赠汨罗。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

TO LI BAI AT THE SKY SEND

A cold wind blows from the far sky....

What are you thinking of, old friend?

The wildgeese never answer me.

Rivers and lakes are flooded with rain.

...A poet should beware of prosperity,

Yet demons can haunt a wanderer.

Ask an unhappy ghost, throw poems to him

Where he drowned himself in the Milo River.

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111

五言律诗

杜甫

奉济驿重送严公四韵

远送从此别，青山空复情。

几时杯重把，昨夜月同行。

列郡讴歌惜，三朝出入荣。

将村独归处，寂寞养残生。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

A FAREWELL AT FENGJI STATION TO GENERAL YAN

This is where your comrade must leave you,

Turning at the foot of these purple mountains....

When shall we lift our cups again, I wonder,

As we did last night and walk in the moon?

The region is murmuring farewell

To one who was honoured through three reigns;

And back I go now to my river-village,

Into the final solitude.

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112

五言律诗

杜甫

别房太尉墓

他乡复行役，驻马别孤坟。

近泪无乾土，低空有断云。

对棋陪谢傅，把剑觅徐君。

唯见林花落，莺啼送客闻。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

ON LEAVING THE TOMB OF PREMIER FANG

Having to travel back now from this far place,

I dismount beside your lonely tomb.

The ground where I stand is wet with my tears;

The sky is dark with broken clouds....

I who played chess with the great Premier

Am bringing to my lord the dagger he desired.

But I find only petals falling down,

I hear only linnets answering.

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113

五言律诗

杜甫

旅夜书怀

细草微风岸，危樯独夜舟。

星垂平野阔，月涌大江流。

名岂文章著，官应老病休。

飘飘何所似，天地一沙鸥。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

A NIGHT ABROAD

A light wind is rippling at the grassy shore....

Through the night, to my motionless tall mast,

The stars lean down from open space,

And the moon comes running up the river.

...If only my art might bring me fame

And free my sick old age from office! --

Flitting, flitting, what am I like

But a sand-snipe in the wide, wide world!

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114

五言律诗

杜甫

登岳阳楼

昔闻洞庭水，今上岳阳楼。

吴楚东南坼，乾坤日夜浮。

亲朋无一字，老病有孤舟。

戎马关山北，凭轩涕泗流。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

ON THE GATE-TOWER AT YOUZHOU

I had always heard of Lake Dongting --

And now at last I have climbed to this tower.

With Wu country to the east of me and Chu to the south,

I can see heaven and earth endlessly floating.

...But no word has reached me from kin or friends.

I am old and sick and alone with my boat.

North of this wall there are wars and mountains --

And here by the rail how can I help crying?

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115

五言律诗

王维

辋川闲居赠裴秀才迪

寒山转苍翠，秋水日潺湲。

倚杖柴门外，临风听暮蝉。

渡头余落日，墟里上孤烟。

复值接舆醉，狂歌五柳前。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Wang Wei

A MESSAGE FROM MY LODGE AT WANGCHUAN

TO PEI DI

The mountains are cold and blue now

And the autumn waters have run all day.

By my thatch door, leaning on my staff,

I listen to cicadas in the evening wind.

Sunset lingers at the ferry,

Supper-smoke floats up from the houses.

...Oh, when shall I pledge the great Hermit again

And sing a wild poem at Five Willows?

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116

五言律诗

王维

山居秋暝

空山新雨后，天气晚来秋。

明月松间照，清泉石上流。

竹喧归浣女，莲动下渔舟。

随意春芳歇，王孙自可留。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Wang Wei

AN AUTUMN EVENING IN THE MOUNTAINS

After rain the empty mountain

Stands autumnal in the evening,

Moonlight in its groves of pine,

Stones of crystal in its brooks.

Bamboos whisper of washer-girls bound home,

Lotus-leaves yield before a fisher-boat --

And what does it matter that springtime has gone,

While you are here, O Prince of Friends?

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117

五言律诗

王维

归嵩山作

清川带长薄，车马去闲闲。

流水如有意，暮禽相与还。

荒城临古渡，落日满秋山。

迢递嵩高下，归来且闭关。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Wang Wei

BOUND HOME TO MOUNT SONG

The limpid river, past its bushes

Running slowly as my chariot,

Becomes a fellow voyager

Returning home with the evening birds.

A ruined city-wall overtops an old ferry,

Autumn sunset floods the peaks.

...Far away, beside Mount Song,

I shall close my door and be at peace.

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118

五言律诗

王维

终南山

太乙近天都，连山接海隅。

白云回望合，青霭入看无。

分野中峰变，阴晴众壑殊。

欲投人处宿，隔水问樵夫。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Wang Wei

MOUNT ZHONGNAN

Its massive height near the City of Heaven

Joins a thousand mountains to the corner of the sea.

Clouds, when I look back, close behind me,

Mists, when I enter them, are gone.

A central peak divides the wilds

And weather into many valleys.

...Needing a place to spend the night,

I call to a wood-cutter over the river.

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119

五言律诗

王维

酬张少府

晚年惟好静，万事不关心。

自顾无长策，空知返旧林。

松风吹解带，山月照弹琴。

君问穷通理，渔歌入浦深。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Wang Wei

ANSWERING VICE-PREFECT ZHANG

As the years go by, give me but peace,

Freedom from ten thousand matters.

I ask myself and always answer:

What can be better than coming home?

A wind from the pine-trees blows my sash,

And my lute is bright with the mountain moon.

You ask me about good and evil fortune?....

Hark, on the lake there's a fisherman singing!

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120

五言律诗

王维

过香积寺

不知香积寺，数里入云峰。

古木无人径，深山何处钟。

泉声咽危石，日色冷青松。

薄暮空潭曲，安禅制毒龙。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Wang Wei

TOWARD THE TEMPLE OF HEAPED FRAGRANCE

Not knowing the way to the Temple of Heaped Fragrance,

Under miles of mountain-cloud I have wandered

Through ancient woods without a human track;

But now on the height I hear a bell.

A rillet sings over winding rocks,

The sun is tempered by green pines....

And at twilight, close to an emptying pool,

Thought can conquer the Passion-Dragon.

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121

五言律诗

王维

送梓州李使君

万壑树参天，千山响杜鹃。

山中一夜雨，树杪百重泉。

汉女输橦布，巴人讼芋田。

文翁翻教授，不敢倚先贤。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Wang Wei

A MESSAGE TO COMMISSIONER LI AT ZIZHOU

From ten thousand valleys the trees touch heaven;

On a thousand peaks cuckoos are calling;

And, after a night of mountain rain,

From each summit come hundreds of silken cascades.

...If girls are asked in tribute the fibre they weave,

Or farmers quarrel over taro fields,

Preside as wisely as Wenweng did....

Is fame to be only for the ancients?

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122

五言律诗

王维

汉江临眺

楚塞三湘接，荆门九派通。

江流天地外，山色有无中。

郡邑浮前浦，波澜动远空。

襄阳好风日，留醉与山翁。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Wang Wei

A VIEW OF THE HAN RIVER

With its three southern branches reaching the Chu border,

And its nine streams touching the gateway of Jing,

This river runs beyond heaven and earth,

Where the colour of mountains both is and is not.

The dwellings of men seem floating along

On ripples of the distant sky --

These beautiful days here in Xiangyang

Make drunken my old mountain heart!

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123

五言律诗

王维

终南别业

中岁颇好道，晚家南山陲。

兴来美独往，胜事空自知。

行到水穷处，坐看云起时。

偶然值林叟，谈笑无还期。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Wang Wei

MY RETREAT AT MOUNT ZHONGNAN

My heart in middle age found the Way.

And I came to dwell at the foot of this mountain.

When the spirit moves, I wander alone

Amid beauty that is all for me....

I will walk till the water checks my path,

Then sit and watch the rising clouds --

And some day meet an old wood-cutter

And talk and laugh and never return.

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124

五言律诗

孟浩然

望洞庭湖赠张丞相

八月湖水平，涵虚混太清。

气蒸云梦泽，波撼岳阳城。

欲济无舟楫，端居耻圣明。

坐观垂钓者，空有羡鱼情。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Meng Haoran

A MESSAGE FROM LAKE DONGTIN

TO PREMIER ZHANG

Here in the Eighth-month the waters of the lake

Are of a single air with heaven,

And a mist from the Yun and Meng valleys

Has beleaguered the city of Youzhou.

I should like to cross, but I can find no boat.

...How ashamed I am to be idler than you statesmen,

As I sit here and watch a fisherman casting

And emptily envy him his catch.

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125

五言律诗

孟浩然

与诸子登岘山

人事有代谢，往来成古今。

江山留胜迹，我辈复登临。

水落鱼梁浅，天寒梦泽深。

羊公碑字在，读罢泪沾襟。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Meng Haoran

ON CLIMBING YAN MOUNTAIN WITH FRIENDS

While worldly matters take their turn,

Ancient, modern, to and fro,

Rivers and mountains are changeless in their glory

And still to be witnessed from this trail.

Where a fisher-boat dips by a waterfall,

Where the air grows colder, deep in the valley,

The monument of Yang remains;

And we have wept, reading the words.

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126

五言律诗

孟浩然

清明日宴梅道士房

林卧愁春尽，开轩览物华。

忽逢青鸟使，邀入赤松家。

丹灶初开火，仙桃正发花。

童颜若可驻，何惜醉流霞。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Meng Haoran

AT A BANQUET IN THE HOUSE

OF THE TAOIST PRIEST MEI

In my bed among the woods, grieving that spring must end,

I lifted up the curtain on a pathway of flowers,

And a flashing bluebird bade me come

To the dwelling-place of the Red Pine Genie.

...What a flame for his golden crucible --

Peach-trees magical with buds ! --

And for holding boyhood in his face,

The rosy-flowing wine of clouds!

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127

五言律诗

孟浩然

岁暮归南山

北阙休上书，南山归敝庐。

不才明主弃，多病故人疏。

白发催年老，青阳逼岁除。

永怀愁不寐，松月夜窗墟。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Meng Haoran

ON RETURNING AT THE YEAR'S END TO

ZHONGNAN MOUNTAIN

I petition no more at the north palace-gate.

...To this tumble-down hut on Zhongnan Mountain

I was banished for my blunders, by a wise ruler.

I have been sick so long I see none of my friends.

My white hairs hasten my decline,

Like pale beams ending the old year.

Therefore I lie awake and ponder

On the pine-shadowed moonlight in my empty window.

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128

五言律诗

孟浩然

过故人庄

故人具鸡黍，邀我至田家。

绿树村边合，青山郭外斜。

开轩面场圃，把酒话桑麻。

待到重阳日，还来就菊花。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Meng Haoran

STOPPING AT A FRIEND'S FARM-HOUSE

Preparing me chicken and rice, old friend,

You entertain me at your farm.

We watch the green trees that circle your village

And the pale blue of outlying mountains.

We open your window over garden and field,

To talk mulberry and hemp with our cups in our hands.

...Wait till the Mountain Holiday --

I am coming again in chrysanthemum time.

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129

五言律诗

孟浩然

秦中感秋寄远上人

一丘尝欲卧，三径苦无资。

北土非吾愿，东林怀我师。

黄金燃桂尽，壮志逐年衰。

日夕凉风至，闻蝉但益悲。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Meng Haoran

FROM QIN COUNTRY TO THE BUDDHIST PRIEST YUAN

How gladly I would seek a mountain

If I had enough means to live as a recluse!

For I turn at last from serving the State

To the Eastern Woods Temple and to you, my master.

...Like ashes of gold in a cinnamon-flame,

My youthful desires have been burnt with the years-

And tonight in the chilling sunset-wind

A cicada, singing, weighs on my heart.

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130

五言律诗

孟浩然

宿桐庐江寄广陵旧游

山暝听猿愁，沧江急夜流。

风鸣两岸叶，月照一孤舟。

建德非吾土，维扬忆旧游。

还将两行泪，遥寄海西头。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Meng Haoran

FROM A MOORING ON THE TONGLU

TO A FRIEND IN YANGZHOU

With monkeys whimpering on the shadowy mountain,

And the river rushing through the night,

And a wind in the leaves along both banks,

And the moon athwart my solitary sail,

I, a stranger in this inland district,

Homesick for my Yangzhou friends,

Send eastward two long streams of tears

To find the nearest touch of the sea.

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131

五言律诗

孟浩然

留别王侍御维

寂寂竟何待，朝朝空自归。

欲寻芳草去，惜与故人违。

当路谁相假，知音世所稀。

祗应守寂寞，还掩故园扉。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Meng Haoran

TAKING LEAVE OF WANG WEI

Slow and reluctant, I have waited

Day after day, till now I must go.

How sweet the road-side flowers might be

If they did not mean good-bye, old friend.

The Lords of the Realm are harsh to us

And men of affairs are not our kind.

I will turn back home, I will say no more,

I will close the gate of my old garden.

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132

五言律诗

孟浩然

早寒江上有怀

木落雁南渡，北风江上寒。

我家襄水曲，遥隔楚云端。

乡泪客中尽，孤帆天际看。

迷津欲有问，平海夕漫漫。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Meng Haoran

MEMORIES IN EARLY WINTER

South go the wildgesse, for leaves are now falling,

And the water is cold with a wind from the north.

I remember my home; but the Xiang River's curves

Are walled by the clouds of this southern country.

I go forward. I weep till my tears are spent.

I see a sail in the far sky.

Where is the ferry? Will somebody tell me?

It's growing rough. It's growing dark.

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133

五言律诗

刘长卿

秋日登吴公台上寺远眺

古台摇落后，秋日望乡心。

野寺人来少，云峰水隔深。

夕阳依旧垒，寒磬满空林。

惆怅南朝事，长江独至今。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Liu Changqing

CLIMBING IN AUTUMN FOR A VIEW FROM THE TEMPLE

ON THE TERRACE OF GENERAL WU

So autumn breaks my homesick heart....

Few pilgrims venture climbing to a temple so wild,

Up from the lake, in the mountain clouds.

...Sunset clings in the old defences,

A stone gong shivers through the empty woods.

...Of the Southern Dynasty, what remains?

Nothing but the great River.

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134

五言律诗

刘长卿

送李中丞归汉阳别业

流落征南将，曾驱十万师。

罢归无旧业，老去恋明时。

独立三边静，轻生一剑知。

茫茫江汉上，日暮复何之。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Liu Chanqing

A FAREWELL TO GOVERNOR LI

ON HIS WAY HOME TO HANYANG

Sad wanderer, once you conquered the South,

Commanding a hundred thousand men;

Today, dismissed and dispossessed,

In your old age you remember glory.

Once, when you stood, three borders were still;

Your dagger was the scale of life.

Now, watching the great rivers, the Jiang and the Han,

On their ways in the evening, where do you go?

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135

五言律诗

刘长卿

饯别王十一南游

望君烟水阔，挥手泪沾巾。

飞鸟没何处？青山空向人。

长江一帆远，落日五湖春。

谁见汀洲上，相思愁白苹？

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Five-character-regular-verse

Liu Changing

ON SEEING WANG LEAVE FOR THE SOUTH

Toward a mist upon the water

Still I wave my hand and sob,

For the flying bird is lost in space

Beyond a desolate green mountain....

But now the long river, the far lone sail,

five lakes, gleam like spring in the sunset;

And down an island white with duckweed

Comes the quiet of communion.

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136

五言律诗

刘长卿

寻南溪常山道人隐居

一路经行处，莓苔见履痕。

白云依静渚，春草闭闲门。

过雨看松色，随山到水源。

溪花与禅意，相对亦忘言。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Liu Changing

WHILE VISITING ON THE SOUTH STREAM

THE TAOIST PRIEST CHANG

Walking along a little path,

I find a footprint on the moss,

A while cloud low on the quiet lake,

Grasses that sweeten an idle door,

A pine grown greener with the rain,

A brook that comes from a mountain source --

And, mingling with Truth among the flowers,

I have forgotten what to say.

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137

五言律诗

刘长卿

新年作

乡心新岁切，天畔独潸然。

老至居人下，春归在客先。

岭猿同旦暮，江柳共风烟。

已似长沙傅，从今又几年。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Liu Changqing

NEW YEAR'S AT CHANGSHA

New Year's only deepens my longing,

Adds to the lonely tears of an exile

Who, growing old and still in harness,

Is left here by the homing spring....

Monkeys come down from the mountains to haunt me.

I bend like a willow, when it rains on the river.

I think of Jia Yi, who taught here and died here-

And I wonder what my term shall be.

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138

五言律诗

钱起

送僧归日本

上国随缘住，来途若梦行。

浮天沧海远，去世法舟轻。

水月通禅寂，鱼龙听梵声。

惟怜一灯影，万里眼中明。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Qian Qi

FAREWELL TO A JAPANESE BUDDHIST PRIEST

BOUND HOMEWARD

You were foreordained to find the source.

Now, tracing your way as in a dream

There where the sea floats up the sky,

You wane from the world in your fragile boat....

The water and the moon are as calm as your faith,

Fishes and dragons follow your chanting,

And the eye still watches beyond the horizon

The holy light of your single lantern.

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139

五言律诗

钱起

谷口书斋寄杨补阙

泉壑带茅茨，云霞生薜帷。

竹怜新雨后，山爱夕阳时。

闲鹭栖常早，秋花落更迟。

家童扫萝径，昨与故人期。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Qian Qi

FROM MY STUDY AT THE MOUTH OF THE VALLEY.

A MESSAGE TO CENSOR YANG

At a little grass-hut in the valley of the river,

Where a cloud seems born from a viney wall,

You will love the bamboos new with rain,

And mountains tender in the sunset.

Cranes drift early here to rest

And autumn flowers are slow to fade....

I have bidden my pupil to sweep the grassy path

For the coming of my friend.

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140

五言律诗

韦应物

淮上喜会梁川故人

江汉曾为客，相逢每醉还。

浮云一别后，流水十年间。

欢笑情如旧，萧疏鬓已斑。

何因北归去？淮上对秋山。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Wei Yingwu

A GREETING ON THE HUAI RIVER

TO MY OLD FRIENDS FROM LIANGCHUAN

We used to be companions on the Jiang and the Han,

And as often as we met, we were likely to be tipsy.

Since we left one another, floating apart like clouds,

Ten years have run like water-till at last we join again.

And we talk again and laugh again just as in earlier days,

Except that the hair on our heads is tinged now with grey.

Why not come along, then, all of us together,

And face the autumn mountains and sail along the Huai?

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141

五言律诗

韦应物

赋得暮雨送李胄

楚江微雨里，建业暮钟时。

漠漠帆来重，冥冥鸟去迟。

海门深不见，浦树远含滋。

相送情无限，沾襟比散丝。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Wei Yingwu

A FAREWELL IN THE EVENING RAIN TO LI CAO

Is it raining on the river all the way to Chu? -- -

The evening bell comes to us from Nanjing.

Your wet sail drags and is loath to be going

And shadowy birds are flying slow.

We cannot see the deep ocean-gate --

Only the boughs at Pukou, newly dripping.

Likewise, because of our great love,

There are threads of water on our faces.

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142

五言律诗

韩翃

酬程延秋夜即事见赠

长簟迎风早，空城澹月华。

星河秋一雁，砧杵夜千家。

节候看应晚，心期卧亦赊。

向来吟秀句，不觉已鸣鸦。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Han Hong

AN AUTUMN EVENING HARMONIZING

CHENG QIN'S POEM

While a cold wind is creeping under my mat,

And the city's naked wall grows pale with the autumn moon,

I see a lone wild-goose crossing the River of Stars,

And I hear, on stone in the night, thousands of washing mallets....

But, instead of wishing the season, as it goes,

To bear me also far away,

I have found your poem so beautiful

That I forget the homing birds.

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143

五言律诗

刘脊虚

阙题

道由白云尽，春与青溪长。

时有落花至，远隋流水香。

闲门向山路，深柳读书堂。

幽映每白日，清辉照衣裳。

又作闲

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Five-character-regular-verse

Liu Jixu

A POEM

On a road outreaching the white clouds,

By a spring outrunning the bluest river,

Petals come drifting on the wind

And the brook is sweet with them all the way.

My quiet gate is a mountain-trail,

And the willow-trees about my cottage

Sift on my sleeve, through the shadowy noon,

Distillations of the sun.

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144

五言律诗

戴叔伦

江乡故人偶集客舍

天秋月又满，城阙夜千重。

还作江南会，翻疑梦里逢。

风枝惊暗鹊，露草覆寒虫。

羁旅长堪醉，相留畏晓钟。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Dai Shulun

CHANGING ON OLD FRIENDS IN A VILLAGE INN

While the autumn moon is pouring full

On a thousand night-levels among towns and villages,

There meet by chance, south of the river,

Dreaming doubters of a dream....

In the trees a wind has startled the birds,

And insects cower from cold in the grass;

But wayfarers at least have wine

And nothing to fear -- till the morning bell.

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145

五言律诗

卢纶

李端公

故关衰草遍，离别正堪悲。

路出寒云外，人归暮雪时。

少孤为客早，多难识君迟。

掩泪空相向，风尘何处期。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Lu Lun

A FAREWELL TO LI DUAN

By my old gate, among yellow grasses,

Still we linger, sick at heart.

The way you must follow through cold clouds

Will lead you this evening into snow.

Your father died; you left home young;

Nobody knew of your misfortunes.

We cry, we say nothing. What can I wish you,

In this blowing wintry world?

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146

五言律诗

李益

喜见外弟又言别

十年离乱后，长大一相逢。

问姓惊初见，称名忆旧容。

别来沧海事，语罢暮天钟。

明日巴陵道，秋山又几重。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Li Yi

A BRIEF BUT HAPPY MEETING WITH MY BROTHER-IN LAW

"MEETING BY ACCIDENT, ONLY TO PART"

After these ten torn wearisome years

We have met again. We were both so changed

That hearing first your surname, I thought you a stranger --

Then hearing your given name, I remembered your young face....

All that has happened with the tides

We have told and told till the evening bell....

Tomorrow you journey to Youzhou,

Leaving autumn between us, peak after peak.

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147

五言律诗

司空曙

云阳馆与韩绅宿别

故人江海别，几度隔山川。

乍见翻疑梦，相悲各问年。

孤灯寒照雨，深竹暗浮烟。

更有明朝恨，离杯惜共传。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Sikong Shu

A FAREWELL TO HAN SHEN AT THE YUNYANG INN

Long divided by river and sea,

For years we two have failed to meet --

And suddenly to find you seems like a dream....

With a catch in the throat, we ask how old we are.

...Our single lamp shines, through cold and wet,

On a bamboo- thicket sheathed in rain;

But forgetting the sadness that will come with tomorrow,

Let us share the comfort of this farewell wine.

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148

五言律诗

司空曙

喜外弟卢纶见宿

静夜四无邻，荒居旧业贫。

雨中黄叶树，灯下白头人。

以我独沉久，愧君相访频。

平生自有分，况是蔡家亲。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Sikong Shu

WHEN LU LUN MY COUSIN COMES FOR THE NIGHT

With no other neighbour but the quiet night,

Here I live in the same old cottage;

And as raindrops brighten yellow leaves,

The lamp illumines my white head....

Out of the world these many years,

I am ashamed to receive you here.

But you cannot come too often,

More than brother, lifelong friend.

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149

五言律诗

司空曙

贼平后送人北归

世乱同南去，时清独北还。

他乡生白发，旧国见青山。

晓月过残垒，繁星宿故关。

寒禽与衰草，处处伴愁颜。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Sikiong Shu

TO A FRIEND BOUND NORTH

AFTER THE REBELLION

In dangerous times we two came south;

Now you go north in safety, without me.

But remember my head growing white among strangers,

When you look on the blue of the mountains of home.

...The moon goes down behind a ruined fort,

Leaving star-clusters above an old gate....

There are shivering birds and withering grasses,

Whichever way I turn my face.

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150

五言律诗

刘禹锡

蜀先主庙

天地英雄气，千秋尚凛然。

势分三足鼎，业复五铢钱。

得相能开国，生儿不象贤。

凄凉蜀故妓，来舞魏宫前。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Liu Yuxi

IN THE TEMPLE OF THE FIRST KING OF SHU

Even in this world the spirit of a hero

Lives and reigns for thousands of years.

You were the firmest of the pot's three legs;

It was you who maintained the honour of the currency;

You chose a great premier to magnify your kingdom....

And yet you had a son so little like his father

That girls of your country were taken captive

To dance in the palace of the King of Wei.

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151

五言律诗

张籍

没蕃故人

前年伐月支，城下没全师。

蕃汉断消息，死生长别离。

无人收废帐，归马识残旗。

欲祭疑君在，天涯哭此时。

又作戎

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Five-character-regular-verse

Zhang Ji

THINKING OF A FRIEND LOST

IN THE TIBETAN WAR

Last year you went with your troops to Tibet;

And when your men had vanished beyond the citywall,

News was cut off between the two worlds

As between the living and the dead.

No one has come upon a faithful horse guarding

A crumpled tent or torn flag, or any trace of you.

If only I knew, I might serve you in the temple,

Instead of these tears toward the far sky.

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152

五言律诗

白居易

赋得古原草送别

离离原上草，一岁一枯荣。

野火烧不尽，春风吹又生。

远芳侵古道，晴翠接荒城。

又送王孙去，萋萋满别情。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Bai Juyi

GRASSES

Boundless grasses over the plain

Come and go with every season;

Wildfire never quite consumes them --

They are tall once more in the spring wind.

Sweet they press on the old high- road

And reach the crumbling city-gate....

O Prince of Friends, you are gone again....

I hear them sighing after you.

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153

五言律诗

杜牧

旅宿

旅馆无良伴，凝情自悄然。

寒灯思旧事，断雁警愁眠。

远梦归侵晓，家书到隔年。

沧江好烟月，门系钓鱼船。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Du Mu

A NIGHT AT A TAVERN

Solitary at the tavern,

I am shut in with loneliness and grief.

Under the cold lamp, I brood on the past;

I am kept awake by a lost wildgoose.

...Roused at dawn from a misty dream,

I read, a year late, news from home --

And I remember the moon like smoke on the river

And a fisher-boat moored there, under my door.

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154

五言律诗

许浑

秋日赴阙题潼关驿楼

红叶晚萧萧，长亭酒一瓢。

残云归太华，疏雨过中条。

树色随山迥，河声入海遥。

帝乡明日到，犹自梦渔樵。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Xu Hun

INSCRIBED IN THE INN AT TONG GATE

ON AN AUTUMN TRIP TO THE CAPITAL

Red leaves are fluttering down the twilight

Past this arbour where I take my wine;

Cloud-rifts are blowing toward Great Flower Mountain,

And a shower is crossing the Middle Ridge.

I can see trees colouring a distant wall.

I can hear the river seeking the sea,

As I the Imperial City tomorrow --

But I dream of woodsmen and fishermen.

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155

五言律诗

许浑

早秋

遥夜泛清瑟，西风生翠萝。

残萤栖玉露，早雁拂银河。

高树晓还密，远山晴更多。

淮南一叶下，自觉老烟波。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Xu Hun

EARLY AUTUMN

There's a harp in the midnight playing clear,

While the west wind rustles a green vine;

There's a low cloud touching the jade-white dew

And an early wildgoose in the River of Stars....

Night in the tall trees clings to dawn;

Light makes folds in the distant hills;

And here on the Huai, by one falling leaf,

I can feel a storm on Lake Dongting.

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156

五言律诗

李商隐

蝉

本以高难饱，徒劳恨费声。

五更疏欲断，一树碧无情。

薄宦梗犹泛，故园芜已平。

烦君最相警，我亦举家清。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Li Shangyin

A CICADA

Pure of heart and therefore hungry,

All night long you have sung in vain --

Oh, this final broken indrawn breath

Among the green indifferent trees!

Yes, I have gone like a piece of driftwood,

I have let my garden fill with weeds....

I bless you for your true advice

To live as pure a life as yours.

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157

五言律诗

李商隐

风雨

凄凉宝剑篇，羁泊欲穷年。

黄叶仍风雨，青楼自管弦。

新知遭薄俗，旧好隔良缘。

心断新丰酒，销愁斗几千。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Li Shangyin

WIND AND RAIN

I ponder on the poem of The Precious Dagger.

My road has wound through many years.

...Now yellow leaves are shaken with a gale;

Yet piping and fiddling keep the Blue Houses merry.

On the surface, I seem to be glad of new people;

But doomed to leave old friends behind me,

I cry out from my heart for Xinfeng wine

To melt away my thousand woes.

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158

五言律诗

李商隐

落花

高阁客竟去，小园花乱飞。

参差连曲陌，迢递送斜晖。

肠断未忍扫，眼穿仍欲归。

芳心向春尽，所得是沾衣。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Li Shangyin

FALLING PETALS

Gone is the guest from the Chamber of Rank,

And petals, confused in my little garden,

Zigzagging down my crooked path,

Escort like dancers the setting sun.

Oh, how can I bear to sweep them away?

To a sad-eyed watcher they never return.

Heart's fragrance is spent with the ending of spring

And nothing left but a tear-stained robe.

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159

五言律诗

李商隐

凉思

客去波平槛，蝉休露满枝。

永怀当此节，倚立自移时。

北斗兼春远，南陵寓使迟。

天涯占梦数，疑误有新知。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Li Shangyin

THOUGHTS IN THE COLD

You are gone. The river is high at my door.

Cicadas are mute on dew-laden boughs.

This is a moment when thoughts enter deep.

I stand alone for a long while.

...The North Star is nearer to me now than spring,

And couriers from your southland never arrive --

Yet I doubt my dream on the far horizon

That you have found another friend.

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160

五言律诗

李商隐

北青萝

残阳西入崦，茅屋访孤僧。

落叶人何在？寒云路几层。

独敲初夜磬，闲倚一枝藤。

世界微尘里，吾宁爱与憎。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Li Shangyin

NORTH AMONG GREEN VINES

Where the sun has entered the western hills,

I look for a monk in his little straw hut;

But only the fallen leaves are at home,

And I turn through chilling levels of cloud

I hear a stone gong in the dusk,

I lean full-weight on my slender staff

How within this world, within this grain of dust,

Can there be any room for the passions of men?

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161

五言律诗

温庭筠

送人东游

荒戍落黄叶，浩然离故关。

高风汉阳渡，初日郢门山。

江上几人在？天涯孤棹还。

何当重相见？樽酒慰离颜。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Wen Tingyun

TO A FRIEND BOUND EAST

The old fort brims with yellow leaves....

You insist upon forsaking this place where you have lived.

A high wind blows at Hanyang Ferry

And sunrise lights the summit of Yingmen....

Who will be left for me along the upper Yangzi

After your solitary skiff has entered the end of the sky?

I ask you over and over when we shall meet again,

While we soften with winecups this ache of farewell.

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162

五言律诗

马戴

灞上秋居

灞原风雨定，晚见雁行频。

落叶他乡树，寒灯独夜人。

空园白露滴，孤壁野僧邻。

寄卧郊扉久，何年致此身？

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Five-character-regular-verse

Ma Dai

AN AUTUMN COTTAGE AT BASHANG

After the shower at Bashang,

I see an evening line of wildgeese,

The limp-hanging leaves of a foreign tree,

A lantern's cold gleam, lonely in the night,

An empty garden, white with dew,

The ruined wall of a neighbouring monastery.

...I have taken my ease here long enough.

What am I waiting for, I wonder.

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163

五言律诗

马戴

楚江怀古

露气寒光集，微阳下楚丘。

猿啼洞庭树，人在木兰舟。

广泽生明月，苍山夹乱流。

云中君不见，竟夕自悲秋。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Ma Dai

THOUGHTS OF OLD TIME

ON THE CHU RIVER

A cold light shines on the gathering dew,

As sunset fades beyond the southern mountains;

Trees echo with monkeys on the banks of Lake Dongting,

Where somebody is moving in an orchid-wood boat.

Marsh-lands are swollen wide with the moon,

While torrents are bent to the mountains' will;

And the vanished Queens of the Clouds leave me

Sad with autumn all night long.

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164

五言律诗

张乔

书边事

调角断清秋，征人倚戍楼。

春风对青冢，白日落梁州。

大漠无兵阻，穷边有客游。

蕃情似此水，长愿向南流。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Zhang Qiao

ON THE BORDER

Though a bugle breaks the crystal air of autumn,

Soldiers, in the look-out, watch at ease today

The spring wind blowing across green graves

And the pale sun setting beyond Liangzhou.

For now, on grey plains done with war,

The border is open to travel again;

And Tartars can no more choose than rivers:

They are running, all of them, toward the south.

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165

五言律诗

崔涂

巴山道中除夜有怀

迢递三巴路，羁危万里身。

乱山残雪夜，孤独异乡春。

渐与骨肉远，转于僮仆亲。

那堪正飘泊，明日岁华新。

又作人

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Five-character-regular-verse

Cui Tu

ON NEW YEAR'S EVE

Farther and farther from the three Ba Roads,

I have come three thousand miles, anxious and watchful,

Through pale snow-patches in the jagged nightmountains --

A stranger with a lonely lantern shaken in the wind.

...Separation from my kin

Binds me closer to my servants --

Yet how I dread, so far adrift,

New Year's Day, tomorrow morning!

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166

五言律诗

崔涂

孤雁

几行归塞尽，片影独何之？

暮雨相呼失，寒塘欲下迟。

渚云低暗渡，关月冷相随。

未必逢矰缴，孤飞自可疑。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Cui Tu

A SOLITARY WILDGOOSE

Line after line has flown back over the border.

Where are you headed all by yourself?

In the evening rain you call to them --

And slowly you alight on an icy pond.

The low wet clouds move faster than you

Along the wall toward the cold moon.

...If they caught you in a net or with a shot,

Would it be worse than flying alone?

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167

五言律诗

杜荀鹤

春宫怨

早被婵娟误，欲妆临镜慵。

承恩不在貌，教妾若为容？

风暖鸟声碎，日高花影重。

年年越溪女，相忆采芙蓉。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Du Xunhe

A SIGH IN THE SPRING PALACE

Knowing beauty my misfortune,

I face my mirror with a sigh.

To please a fastidious emperor,

How shall I array myself?....

Birds flock and sing when the wind is warm,

Flower-shadows climb when the sun is high --

And year after year girls in the south

Are picking hibiscus, dreaming of love!

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168

五言律诗

韦庄

章台夜思

清瑟怨遥夜，绕弦风雨哀。

孤灯闻楚角，残月下章台。

芳草已云暮，故人殊未来。

乡书不可寄，秋雁又南回。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Wei Zhuang

A NIGHT THOUGHT ON TERRACE TOWER

Far through the night a harp is sighing

With a sadness of wind and rain in the strings....

There's a solitary lantern, a bugle-call --

And beyond Terrace Tower down goes the moon.

...Fragrant grasses have changed and faded

While still I have been hoping that my old friend would come....

There are no more messengers I can send him,

Now that the wildgeese have turned south.

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169

五言律诗

僧皎然

寻陆鸿渐不遇

移家虽带郭，野径入桑麻。

近种篱边菊，秋来未著花。

扣门无犬吠，欲去问西家。

报到山中去，归来每日斜。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Seng Jiaoran

NOT FINDING LU HONGXIAN AT HOME

To find you, moved beyond the city,

A wide path led me, by mulberry and hemp,

To a new-set hedge of chrysanthemums --

Not yet blooming although autumn had come.

...I knocked; no answer, not even a dog.

I waited to ask your western neighbour;

But he told me that daily you climb the mountain,

Never returning until sunset.

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170

七言律诗

崔颢

黄鹤楼

昔人已乘黄鹤去，此地空余黄鹤楼。

黄鹤一去不复返，白云千载空悠悠。

晴川历历汉阳树，芳草萋萋鹦鹉洲。

日暮乡关何处是？烟波江上使人愁。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Cui Hao

THE YELLOW CRANE TERRACE

Where long ago a yellow crane bore a sage to heaven,

Nothing is left now but the Yellow Crane Terrace.

The yellow crane never revisited earth,

And white clouds are flying without him for ever.

...Every tree in Hanyang becomes clear in the water,

And Parrot Island is a nest of sweet grasses;

But I look toward home, and twilight grows dark

With a mist of grief on the river waves.

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171

七言律诗

崔颢

行经华阴

岧峣太华俯咸京，天外三峰削不成。

武帝祠前云欲散，仙人掌上雨初晴。

河山北枕秦关险，驿树西连汉畤平。

借问路傍名利客，无如此处学长生。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Cui Hao

PASSING THROUGH HUAYIN

Lords of the capital, sharp, unearthly,

The Great Flower's three points pierce through heaven.

Clouds are parting above the Temple of the Warring Emperor,

Rain dries on the mountain, on the Giant's Palm.

Ranges and rivers are the strength of this western gate,

Whence roads and trails lead downward into China.

...O pilgrim of fame, O seeker of profit,

Why not remain here and lengthen your days?

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172

七言律诗

祖咏

望蓟门

燕台一去客心惊，箫鼓喧喧汉将营。

万里寒光生积雪，三边曙色动危旌。

沙场烽火侵胡月，海畔云山拥蓟城。

少小虽非投笔吏，论功还欲请长缨。

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Five-character-regular-verse

Zu Yong

LOOKING TOWARD AN INNER GATE

OF THE GREAT WALL

My heart sank when I headed north from Yan Country

To the camps of China echoing ith bugle and drum.

...In an endless cold light of massive snow,

Tall flags on three borders rise up like a dawn.

War-torches invade the barbarian moonlight,

Mountain-clouds like chairmen bear the Great Wall from the sea.

...Though no youthful clerk meant to be a great general,

I throw aside my writing-brush --

Like the student who tossed off cap for a lariat,

I challenge what may come.

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173

七言律诗

李颀

送魏万之京

朝闻游子唱骊歌，昨夜微霜初度河。

鸿雁不堪愁里听，云山况是客中过。

关城树色催寒近，御苑砧声向晚多。

莫见长安行乐处，空令岁月易蹉跎。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Li Qi

A FAREWELL TO WEI WAN

The travellers' parting-song sounds in the dawn.

Last night a first frost came over the river;

And the crying of the wildgeese grieves my sad heart

Bounded by a gloom of cloudy mountains....

Here in the Gate City, day will flush cold

And washing-flails quicken by the gardens at twilight --

How long shall the capital content you,

Where the months and the years so vainly go by?

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174

七言律诗

崔曙

九日登望仙台呈刘明府

汉文皇帝有高台，此日登临曙色开。

三晋云山皆北向，二陵风雨自东来。

关门令尹谁能识？河上仙翁去不回，

且欲竟寻彭泽宰，陶然共醉菊花杯。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Cui Shu

A CLIMB ON THE MOUNTAIN HOLIDAY

TO THE TERRACE WHENCE ONE SEES THE MAGICIAN

A POEM SENT TO VICE-PREFECT LU

The Han Emperor Wen bequeathed us this terrace

Which I climb to watch the coming dawn.

Cloudy peaks run northward in the three Jin districts,

And rains are blowing westward through the two Ling valleys.

...Who knows but me about the Guard at the Gate,

Or where the Magician of the River Bank is,

Or how to find that magistrate, that poet,

Who was as fond as I am of chrysanthemums and winecups?

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175

七言律诗

李白

登金陵凤凰台

凤凰台上凤凰游，凤去台空江自流。

吴宫花草埋幽径，晋代衣冠成古邱。

三台半落青山外，二水中分白鹭洲。

总为浮云能蔽日，长安不见使人愁。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Li Bai

ON CLIMBING IN NANJING TO THE TERRACE

OF PHOENIXES

Phoenixes that played here once, so that the place was named for them,

Have abandoned it now to this desolate river;

The paths of Wu Palace are crooked with weeds;

The garments of Qin are ancient dust.

...Like this green horizon halving the Three Peaks,

Like this Island of White Egrets dividing the river,

A cloud has arisen between the Light of Heaven and me,

To hide his city from my melancholy heart.

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176

七言律诗

高适

送李少府贬峡中王少府贬长沙

嗟君此别意何如？驻马衔杯问谪居。

巫峡啼猿数行泪，衡阳归雁几封书。

青枫江上秋帆远，白帝城边古木疏。

圣代即今多雨露，暂时分手莫踌躇。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Gao Shi

TO VICE-PREFECTS LI AND WANG DEGRADED AND

TRANSFERRED TO XIAZHONG AND CHANGSHA

What are you thinking as we part from one another,

Pulling in our horses for the stirrup-cups?

Do these tear-streaks mean Wu Valley monkeys all weeping,

Or wildgeese returning with news from Heng Mountain?....

On the river between green maples an autumn sail grows dim,

There are only a few old trees by the wall of the White God City....

But the year is bound to freshen us with a dew of heavenly favour --

Take heart, we shall soon be together again!

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177

七言律诗

岑参

奉和中书舍人贾至早朝大明宫

鸡鸣紫陌曙光寒，莺啭皇州春色阑。

金阙晓钟开万户，玉阶仙仗拥千官。

花迎剑佩星初落，柳拂旌旗露未乾。

独有凤凰池上客，阳春一曲和皆难。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Cen Can

AN EARLY AUDIENCE AT THE PALACE OF LIGHT

HARMONIZING SECRETARY JIA ZHI'S POEM

Cock-crow, the Purple Road cold in the dawn;

Linnet songs, court roofs tinted with April;

At the Golden Gate morning bell, countless doors open,

And up the jade steps float a thousand officials

With flowery scabbards.... Stars have gone down;

Willows are brushing the dew from the flags --

And, alone on the Lake of the Phoenix, a guest

Is chanting too well The Song of Bright Spring.

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178

七言律诗

王维

和贾舍人早朝大明宫之作

绛帻鸡人送晓筹，尚衣方进翠云裘。

九天阊阖开宫殿，万国衣冠拜冕旒。

日色才临仙掌动，香烟欲傍衮龙浮。

朝罢须裁五色诏，佩声归向凤池头。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Wang Wei

AN EARLY AUDIENCE AT THE PALACE OF LIGHT

HARMONIZING SECRETARY JIA ZHI POEM

The red-capped Cock-Man has just announced morning;

The Keeper of the Robes brings Jade-Cloud Furs;

Heaven's nine doors reveal the palace and its courtyards;

And the coats of many countries bow to the Pearl Crown.

Sunshine has entered the giants' carven palms;

Incense wreathes the Dragon Robe:

The audience adjourns-and the five-coloured edict

Sets girdle-beads clinking toward the Lake of the Phoenix.

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179

七言律诗

王维

奉和圣制从蓬莱向兴庆阁道中留春雨中春望之作应制

渭水自萦秦塞曲，黄山旧绕汉宫斜。

銮舆迥出千门柳，阁道回看上苑花。

云里帝城双凤阙，雨中春树万人家。

为乘阳气行时令，不是宸游玩物华。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Wang Wei

LOOKING DOWN IN A SPRING-RAIN ON THE COURSE

FROM FAIRY-MOUNTAIN PALACE TO THE PAVILION OF

INCREASE HARMONIZING THE EMPEROR'S POEM

Round a turn of the Qin Fortress winds the Wei River,

And Yellow Mountain foot-hills enclose the Court of China;

Past the South Gate willows comes the Car of Many Bells

On the upper Palace-Garden Road-a solid length of blossom;

A Forbidden City roof holds two phoenixes in cloud;

The foliage of spring shelters multitudes from rain;

And now, when the heavens are propitious for action,

Here is our Emperor ready-no wasteful wanderer.

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180

七言律诗

王维

积雨辋川庄作

积雨空林烟火迟，蒸藜炊黍饷东灾。

漠漠水田飞白鹭，阴阴夏木啭黄鹂。

山中习静观朝槿，松下清斋折露葵。

野老与人争席罢，海鸥何事更相疑？

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Wang Wei

IN MY LODGE AT WANG CHUAN

AFTER A LONG RAIN

The woods have stored the rain, and slow comes the smoke

As rice is cooked on faggots and carried to the fields;

Over the quiet marsh-land flies a white egret,

And mango-birds are singing in the full summer trees....

I have learned to watch in peace the mountain morningglories,

To eat split dewy sunflower-seeds under a bough of pine,

To yield the post of honour to any boor at all....

Why should I frighten sea gulls, even with a thought?

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181

七言律诗

王维

酬郭给事

洞门高阁霭余辉，桃李阴阴柳絮飞。

禁里疏钟官舍晚，省中啼鸟吏人稀。

晨摇玉佩趋金殿，夕奉天书拜琐闱。

强欲从君无那老，将因卧病解朝衣。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Wang Wei

HARMONIZING A POEM BY PALACE-ATTENDANT GUO

High beyond the thick wall a tower shines with sunset

Where peach and plum are blooming and the willowcotton flies.

You have heard in your office the court-bell of twilight;

Birds find perches, officials head for home.

Your morning-jade will tinkle as you thread the golden palace;

You will bring the word of Heaven from the closing gates at night.

And I should serve there with you; but being full of years,

I have taken off official robes and am resting from my troubles.

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182

七言律诗

杜甫

蜀相

丞相祠堂何处寻？锦官城外柏森森，

映阶碧草自春色，隔叶黄鹂空好音。

三顾频烦天下计，两朝开济老臣心。

出师未捷身先死，长使英雄泪满襟。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

THE TEMPLE OF THE PREMIER OF SHU

Where is the temple of the famous Premier? --

In a deep pine grove near the City of Silk,

With the green grass of spring colouring the steps,

And birds chirping happily under the leaves.

...The third summons weighted him with affairs of state

And to two generations he gave his true heart,

But before he could conquer, he was dead;

And heroes have wept on their coats ever since.

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183

七言律诗

杜甫

客至

舍南舍北皆春水，但见群鸥日日来。

花径不曾缘客扫，蓬门今始为君开。

盘飧市远无兼味，樽酒家贫只旧醅。

肯与邻翁相对饮，隔篱呼取尽余杯。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

A HEARTY WELCOME TO VICE-PREFECT CUI

North of me, south of me, spring is in flood,

Day after day I have seen only gulls....

My path is full of petals -- I have swept it for no others.

My thatch gate has been closed -- but opens now for you.

It's a long way to the market, I can offer you little --

Yet here in my cottage there is old wine for our cups.

Shall we summon my elderly neighbour to join us,

Call him through the fence, and pour the jar dry?

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184

七言律诗

杜甫

野望

西山白雪三城戍，南浦清江万里桥。

海内风尘诸弟隔，天涯涕泪一身遥。

唯将迟暮供多病，未有涓埃答圣朝。

跨马出郊时极目，不堪人事日萧条。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

A VIEW OF THE WILDERNESS

Snow is white on the westward mountains and on three fortified towns,

And waters in this southern lake flash on a long bridge.

But wind and dust from sea to sea bar me from my brothers;

And I cannot help crying, I am so far away.

I have nothing to expect now but the ills of old age.

I am of less use to my country than a grain of dust.

I ride out to the edge of town. I watch on the horizon,

Day after day, the chaos of the world.

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185

七言律诗

杜甫

闻官军收河南河北

剑外忽传收蓟北，初闻涕泪满衣裳。

却看妻子愁何在？漫卷诗书喜欲狂。

白日放歌须纵酒，青春作伴好还乡。

即从巴峡穿巫峡，便下襄阳向洛阳。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

BOTH SIDES OF THE YELLOW RIVER

RECAPTURED BY THE IMPERIAL ARMY

News at this far western station! The north has been recaptured!

At first I cannot check the tears from pouring on my coat --

Where is my wife? Where are my sons?

Yet crazily sure of finding them, I pack my books and poems- -

And loud my song and deep my drink

On the green spring-day that starts me home,

Back from this mountain, past another mountain,

Up from the south, north again-to my own town!

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186

七言律诗

杜甫

登高

风急天高猿啸哀，渚清沙白鸟飞回。

无边落木萧萧下，不尽长江滚滚来。

万里悲秋常作客，百年多病独登台。

艰难苦恨繁霜鬓，潦倒新停浊酒杯。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

A LONG CLIMB

In a sharp gale from the wide sky apes are whimpering,

Birds are flying homeward over the clear lake and white sand,

Leaves are dropping down like the spray of a waterfall,

While I watch the long river always rolling on.

I have come three thousand miles away. Sad now with autumn

And with my hundred years of woe, I climb this height alone.

Ill fortune has laid a bitter frost on my temples,

Heart-ache and weariness are a thick dust in my wine.

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187

七言律诗

杜甫

登楼

花近高楼伤客心，万方多难此登临。

锦江春色来天地，玉垒浮云变古今。

北极朝庭终不改，西山寇盗莫相侵。

可怜后主还祠庙，日暮聊为梁父吟。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

FROM AN UPPER STORY

Flowers, as high as my window, hurt the heart of a wanderer

For I see, from this high vantage, sadness everywhere.

The Silken River, bright with spring, floats between earth and heaven

Like a line of cloud by the Jade Peak, between ancient days and now.

...Though the State is established for a while as firm as the North Star

And bandits dare not venture from the western hills,

Yet sorry in the twilight for the woes of a longvanished Emperor,

I am singing the song his Premier sang when still unestranged from the mountain.

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188

七言律诗

杜甫

宿府

清秋幕府井梧寒，独宿江城蜡炬残。

永夜角声悲自语，中天月色好谁看？

风尘荏苒音书绝，关塞萧条行陆难。

已忍伶俜十年事，强移栖息一枝安。

又作路

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

STAYING AT THE GENERAL'S HEADQUARTERS

The autumn night is clear and cold in the lakka-trees of this courtyard.

I am lying forlorn in the river-town. I watch my guttering candle.

I hear the lonely notes of a bugle sounding through the dark.

The moon is in mid-heaven, but there's no one to share it with me.

My messengers are scattered by whirls of rain and sand.

City-gates are closed to a traveller; mountains are walls in my way --

Yet, I who have borne ten years of pitiable existence,

Find here a perch, a little branch, and am safe for this one night.

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189

七言律诗

杜甫

阁夜

岁暮阴阳催短景，天涯霜雪霁寒霄。

五更鼓角声悲壮，三峡星河影动摇。

野哭千家闻战伐，夷歌数处起渔樵。

卧龙跃马终黄土，人事音书漫寂寥。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

NIGHT IN THE WATCH-TOWER

While winter daylight shortens in the elemental scale

And snow and frost whiten the cold-circling night,

Stark sounds the fifth-watch with a challenge of drum and bugle.

...The stars and the River of Heaven pulse over the three mountains;

I hear women in the distance, wailing after the battle;

I see barbarian fishermen and woodcutters in the dawn.

...Sleeping-Dragon, Plunging-Horse, are no generals now, they are dust --

Hush for a moment, O tumult of the world.

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190

七言律诗

杜甫

咏怀古迹五首之一

支离东北风尘际，漂泊西南天地间。

三峡楼台淹日月，五溪衣服共云山。

羯胡事主终无赖，词客哀时且未还。

庾信平生最萧瑟，暮年诗赋动江关。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

POETIC THOUGHTS ON ANCIENT SITES I

Forlorn in the northeast among wind and dust,

Drifting in the southwest between heaven and earth,

Lingering for days and months in towers and terraces at the Three Gorges,

Sharing clouds and mountains with the costumes of the Five Streams.

The barbarian serving the ruler in the end was unreliable.

The wandering poet lamenting the times had no chance to return.

Yu Xin throughout his life was most miserable,

In his waning years his poetry stirred the land of rivers and passes.

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191

七言律诗

杜甫

咏怀古迹五首之二

摇落深知宋玉悲，风流儒雅亦吾师。

怅望千秋一洒泪，萧条异代不同时。

江山故宅空文藻，云雨荒台岂梦思。

最是楚宫俱泯灭，舟人指点到今疑。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

POETIC THOUGHTS ON ANCIENT SITES II

"Decay and decline": deep knowledge have I of Sung Yu's grief.

Romantic and refined, he too is my teacher.

Sadly looking across a thousand autumns, one shower of tears,

Melancholy in different epochs, not at the same time.

Among rivers and mountains his old abode -- empty his writings;

Deserted terrace of cloud and rain -- surely not just imagined in a dream?

Utterly the palaces of Chu are all destroyed and ruined,

The fishermen pointing them out today are unsure.

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192

七言律诗

杜甫

咏怀古迹五首之三

群山万壑赴荆门，生长明妃尚有村。

一去紫台连朔漠，独留青冢向黄昏。

画图省识春风面，环佩空归月下魂。

千载琵琶作胡语，分明怨恨曲中论。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

THOUGHTS OF OLD TIME III

Ten thousand ranges and valleys approach the Jing Gate

And the village in which the Lady of Light was born and bred.

She went out from the purple palace into the desertland;

She has now become a green grave in the yellow dusk.

Her face ! Can you picture a wind of the spring?

Her spirit by moonlight returns with a tinkling

Song of the Tartars on her jade guitar,

Telling her eternal sorrow.

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193

七言律诗

杜甫

咏怀古迹五首之四

蜀主征吴幸三峡，崩年亦在永安宫。

翠华想像空山里，玉殿虚无野寺中。

古庙杉松巢水鹤，岁时伏腊走村翁。

武侯祠屋常邻近，一体君臣祭祀同。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

POETIC THOUGHTS ON ANCIENT SITES IV

The ruler of Shu had his eyes on Wu and progressed as far as the Three Gorges.

In the year of his demise, too, he was in the Palace of Eternal Peace.

The blue-green banners can be imagined on the empty mountain,

The jade palace is a void in the deserted temple.

In the pines of the ancient shrine aquatic cranes nest;

At summer and winter festivals the comers are village elders.

The Martial Marquis's memorial shrine is ever nearby;

In union, sovereign and minister share the sacrifices together.

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194

七言律诗

杜甫

咏怀古迹五首之五

诸葛大名垂宇宙，宗臣遗像肃清高。

三分割据纡筹策，万古云霄一羽毛。

伯仲之间见伊吕，指挥若定失萧曹。

运移汉祚终难复，志决身歼军务劳。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Du Fu

THOUGHTS OF OLD TIME V

Zhuge's prestige transcends the earth;

There is only reverence for his face;

Yet his will, among the Three Kingdoms at war,

Was only as one feather against a flaming sky.

He was brother of men like Yi and Lu

And in time would have surpassed the greatest of all statesmen.

Though he knew there was no hope for the House of Han,

Yet he wielded his mind for it, yielded his life.

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195

七言律诗

刘长卿

江州重别薛六柳八二员外

生涯岂料承优诏？世事空知学醉歌。

江上月明胡雁过，淮南木落楚山多。

寄身且喜沧洲近，顾影无如白发何！

今日龙钟人共老，愧君犹遣慎风波。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Liu Changquing

ON LEAVING GUIJIANG AGAIN TO XUE AND LIU

Dare I, at my age, accept my summons,

Knowing of the world's ways only wine and song?....

Over the moon-edged river come wildgeese from the Tartars;

And the thinner the leaves along the Huai, the wider the southern mountains....

I ought to be glad to take my old bones back to the capital,

But what am I good for in that world, with my few white hairs?....

As bent and decrepit as you are, I am ashamed to thank you,

When you caution me that I may encounter thunderbolts.

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196

七言律诗

刘长卿

长沙过贾谊宅

三年谪宦此栖迟，万古惟留楚客悲。

秋草独寻人去后，寒林空见日斜时。

汉文有道恩犹薄，湘水无情吊岂知？

寂寂江山摇落处，怜君何事到天涯？

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Liu Changqing

ON PASSING JIA YI'S HOUSE IN CHANGSHA

Here, where you spent your three years' exile,

To be mourned in Chu ten thousand years,

Can I trace your footprint in the autumn grass --

Or only slanting sunlight through the bleak woods?

If even good Emperor Wen was cold-hearted,

Could you hope that the dull river Xiang would understand you,

These desolate waters, these taciturn mountains,

When you came, like me, so far away?

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197

七言律诗

刘长卿

自夏口至鹦洲夕望岳阳寄源中丞

汀洲无浪复无烟，楚客相思益渺然。

汉口夕阳斜渡鸟，洞庭秋水远连天。

孤城背岭寒吹角，独戍临江夜泊船。

贾谊上书忧汉室，长沙谪去古今怜。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Liu Changqing

AN EVENING VIEW OF THE CITY OF YOUZHOU AFTER

COMING FROM HANKOU TO PARROT ISLAND A POEM SENT

TO MY FRIEND GOVERNOR YUAN

No ripples in the river, no mist on the islands,

Yet the landscape is blurred toward my friend in Chu....

Birds in the slanting sun cross Hankou,

And the autumn sky mingles with Lake Dongting.

...From a bleak mountain wall the cold tone of a bugle

Reminds me, moored by a ruined fort,

That Jia Yi's loyal plea to the House of Han

Banned him to Changsha, to be an exile.

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198

七言律诗

钱起

赠阙下裴舍人

二月黄鹂飞上林，春城紫禁晓阴阴。

长乐钟声花外尽，龙池柳色雨中深。

阳和不散穷途恨，霄汉长怀捧日心。

献赋十年犹未遇，羞将白发对华簪。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Qian Qi

TO MY FRIEND AT THE CAPITAL SECRETARY PEI

Finches flash yellow through the Imperial Grove

Of the Forbidden City, pale with spring dawn;

Flowers muffle a bell in the Palace of Bliss

And rain has deepened the Dragon Lake willows;

But spring is no help to a man bewildered,

Who would be like a cloud upholding the Light of Heaven,

Yet whose poems, ten years refused, are shaming

These white hairs held by the petalled pin.

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199

七言律诗

韦应物

寄李儋元锡

去年花里逢君别，今日花开又一年。

世事茫茫难自料，春愁黯黯独成眠。

身多疾病思田里，邑有流亡愧俸钱。

闻道欲来相问讯，西楼望月几回圆。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Wei Yingwu

TO MY FRIENDS LI DAN AND YUANXI

We met last among flowers, among flowers we parted,

And here, a year later, there are flowers again;

But, with ways of the world too strange to foretell,

Spring only brings me grief and fatigue.

I am sick, and I think of my home in the country-

Ashamed to take pay while so many are idle.

...In my western tower, because of your promise,

I have watched the full moons come and go.

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200

七言律诗

韩翃

同题仙游观

仙台初见五城楼，风物凄凄宿雨收。

山色遥连秦树晚，砧声近报汉宫秋。

疏松影落空坛静，细草香闲小洞幽。

何用别寻方外去？人间亦自有丹丘。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Han Hong

INSCRIBED IN THE TEMPLE OF THE WANDERING GENIE

I face, high over this enchanted lodge, the Court of the Five Cities of Heaven,

And I see a countryside blue and still, after the long rain.

The distant peaks and trees of Qin merge into twilight,

And Had Palace washing-stones make their autumnal echoes.

Thin pine-shadows brush the outdoor pulpit,

And grasses blow their fragrance into my little cave.

...Who need be craving a world beyond this one?

Here, among men, are the Purple Hills

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201

七言律诗

皇甫冉

春思

莺啼燕语报新年，马邑龙堆路几千。

家住层城邻汉苑，心随明月到胡天。

机中锦字论长恨，楼上花枝笑独眠。

为问天戎窦车骑，何时返旆勒燕然。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Huangfu Ran

SPRING THOUGHTS

Finch-notes and swallow-notes tell the new year....

But so far are the Town of the Horse and the Dragon Mound

From this our house, from these walls and Han Gardens,

That the moon takes my heart to the Tartar sky.

I have woven in the frame endless words of my grieving....

Yet this petal-bough is smiling now on my lonely sleep.

Oh, ask General Dou when his flags will come home

And his triumph be carved on the rock of Yanran mountain!

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202

七言律诗

卢纶

晚次鄂州

云开远见汉阳城，犹是孤帆一日程。

估客昼眠知浪静，舟人夜语觉潮生。

三湘愁鬓逢秋色，万里归心对月明。

旧业已随征战尽，更堪江上鼓鼙声。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Lu Lun

A NIGHT-MOORING AT WUCHANG

Far off in the clouds stand the walls of Hanyang,

Another day's journey for my lone sail....

Though a river-merchant ought to sleep in this calm weather,

I listen to the tide at night and voices of the boatmen.

...My thin hair grows wintry, like the triple Xiang streams,

Three thousand miles my heart goes, homesick with the moon;

But the war has left me nothing of my heritage --

And oh, the pang of hearing these drums along the river!

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203

七言律诗

柳宗元

登柳州城楼寄漳汀封连四州刺史

城上高楼接大荒，海天愁思正茫茫。

惊风乱飐芙蓉水，密雨斜侵薜荔墙。

岭树重遮千里目，江流曲似九回肠。

共来百越文身地，犹自音书滞一乡。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Liu Zongyuan

FROM THE CITY-TOWER OF LIUZHOU

TO MY FOUR FELLOW-OFFICIALS AT ZHANG,

DING, FENG, AND LIAN DISTRICTS

At this lofty tower where the town ends, wilderness begins;

And our longing has as far to go as the ocean or the sky....

Hibiscus-flowers by the moat heave in a sudden wind,

And vines along the wall are whipped with slanting rain.

Nothing to see for three hundred miles but a blur of woods and mountain --

And the river's nine loops, twisting in our bowels....

This is where they have sent us, this land of tattooed people --

And not even letters, to keep us in touch with home.

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204

七言律诗

刘禹锡

西塞山怀古

王浚楼船下益州，金陵王气黯然收。

千寻铁锁沈江底，一片降旛出石头。

人世几回伤往事，山形依旧枕寒流。

从今四海为家日，故垒萧萧芦荻秋。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Liu Yuxi

THOUGHTS OF OLD TIME AT WEST FORT MOUNTAIN

Since Wang Jun brought his towering ships down from Yizhou,

The royal ghost has pined in the city of Nanjing.

Ten thousand feet of iron chain were sunk here to the bottom --

And then came the flag of surrender on the Wall of Stone....

Cycles of change have moved into the past,

While still this mountain dignity has commanded the cold river;

And now comes the day of the Chinese world united,

And the old forts fill with ruin and with autumn reeds.

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205

七言律诗

元稹

遣悲怀之一

谢公最小偏怜女，自嫁黔娄百事乖。

顾我无衣搜荩箧，泥他沽酒拔金钗。

野蔬充膳甘长藿，落叶添薪仰古槐。

今日俸钱过十万，与君营奠复营斋。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Yuan Zhen

AN ELEGY I

O youngest, best-loved daughter of Xie,

Who unluckily married this penniless scholar,

You patched my clothes from your own wicker basket,

And I coaxed off your hairpins of gold, to buy wine with;

For dinner we had to pick wild herbs --

And to use dry locust-leaves for our kindling.

...Today they are paying me a hundred thousand --

And all that I can bring to you is a temple sacrifice.

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206

七言律诗

元稹

遣悲怀之二

昔日戏言身后事，今朝都到眼前来。

衣裳已施行看尽，针线犹存未忍开。

尚想旧情怜婢仆，也曾因梦送钱财。

诚知此恨人人有，贫贱夫妻百事哀。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Yuan Zhen

AN ElEGY II

We joked, long ago, about one of us dying,

But suddenly, before my eyes, you are gone.

Almost all your clothes have been given away;

Your needlework is sealed, I dare not look at it....

I continue your bounty to our men and our maids --

Sometimes, in a dream, I bring you gifts.

...This is a sorrow that all mankind must know --

But not as those know it who have been poor together.

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207

七言律诗

元稹

遣悲怀之三

闲坐悲君亦自悲，百年都是几多时？

邓攸无子寻知命，潘岳悼亡犹费词。

同穴窅冥何所望？他生缘会更难期。

惟将终夜长开眼，报答平生未展眉。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Yuan Zhen

AN ELEGY III

I sit here alone, mourning for us both.

How many years do I lack now of my threescore and ten?

There have been better men than I to whom heaven denied a son,

There was a poet better than I whose dead wife could not hear him.

What have I to hope for in the darkness of our tomb?

You and I had little faith in a meeting after death-

Yet my open eyes can see all night

That lifelong trouble of your brow.

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208

七言律诗

白居易

自河南经乱，关内阻饥，兄弟离散，各在一处。因望月有感，聊书所怀，寄上浮梁大兄，于潜七兄，乌江十五兄，兼示符离及下邽弟妹。

时难年荒世业空，弟兄羁旅各西东。

田园寥落干戈后，骨肉流离道路中。

吊影分为千里雁，辞根散作九秋蓬。

共看明月应垂泪，一夜乡心五处同。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Bai Juyi

TO MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS ADRIFT

IN TROUBLED TIMES THIS POEM OF THE MOON

Since the disorders in Henan and the famine in Guannei, my brothers and sisters have been scattered. Looking at the moon, I express my thoughts in this poem, which I send to my eldest brother at Fuliang, my seventh brother at Yuqian, My fifteen brother at Wujiang and my younger brothers and sisters at Fuli and Xiagui.

My heritage lost through disorder and famine,

My brothers and sisters flung eastward and westward,

My fields and gardens wrecked by the war,

My own flesh and blood become scum of the street,

I moan to my shadow like a lone-wandering wildgoose,

I am torn from my root like a water-plant in autumn:

I gaze at the moon, and my tears run down

For hearts, in five places, all sick with one wish.

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209

七言律诗

李商隐

锦瑟

锦瑟无端五十弦，一弦一柱思华年。

庄生晓梦迷蝴蝶，望帝春心托杜鹃。

沧海月明珠有泪，蓝田日暖玉生烟。

此情可待成追忆，只是当时已惘然。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Li Shangyin

THE INLAID HARP

I wonder why my inlaid harp has fifty strings,

Each with its flower-like fret an interval of youth.

...The sage Chuangzi is day-dreaming, bewitched by butterflies,

The spring-heart of Emperor Wang is crying in a cuckoo,

Mermen weep their pearly tears down a moon-green sea,

Blue fields are breathing their jade to the sun....

And a moment that ought to have lasted for ever

Has come and gone before I knew.

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210

七言律诗

李商隐

无题

昨夜星辰昨夜风，画楼西畔桂堂东。

身无彩凤双飞翼，心有灵犀一点通。

隔座送钩春酒暖，分曹射覆蜡灯红。

嗟余听鼓应官去，走马兰台类转蓬。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Li Shangyin

TO ONE UNNAMED

The stars of last night and the wind of last night

Are west of the Painted Chamber and east of Cinnamon Hall.

...Though I have for my body no wings like those of the bright- coloured phoenix,

Yet I feel the harmonious heart-beat of the Sacred Unicorn.

Across the spring-wine, while it warms me, I prompt you how to bet

Where, group by group, we are throwing dice in the light of a crimson lamp;

Till the rolling of a drum, alas, calls me to my duties

And I mount my horse and ride away, like a water-plant cut adrift.

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211

七言律诗

李商隐

隋宫

紫泉宫殿锁烟霞，欲取芜城作帝家。

玉玺不缘归日角，锦帆应是到天涯。

于今腐草无萤火，终古垂杨有暮鸦。

地下若逢陈后主，岂宜重问后庭花？

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Li Shangyin

THE PALACE OF THE SUI EMPEROR

His Palace of Purple Spring has been taken by mist and cloud,

As he would have taken all Yangzhou to be his private domain

But for the seal of imperial jade being seized by the first Tang Emperor,

He would have bounded with his silken sails the limits of the world.

Fire-flies are gone now, have left the weathered grasses,

But still among the weeping-willows crows perch at twilight.

...If he meets, there underground, the Later Chen Emperor,

Do you think that they will mention a Song of Courtyard Flowers?

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212

七言律诗

李商隐

无题之一

来是空言去绝踪，月斜楼上五更钟。

梦为远别啼难唤，书被催成墨未浓。

蜡照半笼金翡翠，麝熏微度绣芙蓉。

刘郎已恨蓬山远，更隔蓬山一万重。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Li Shangyin

TO ONE UNNAMED I

You said you would come, but you did not, and you left me with no other trace

Than the moonlight on your tower at the fifth-watch bell.

I cry for you forever gone, I cannot waken yet,

I try to read your hurried note, I find the ink too pale.

...Blue burns your candle in its kingfisher-feather lantern

And a sweet breath steals from your hibiscus-broidered curtain.

But far beyond my reach is the Enchanted Mountain,

And you are on the other side, ten thousand peaks away.

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213

七言律诗

李商隐

无题之二

飒飒东风细雨来，芙蓉塘外有轻雷。

金蟾啮璅烧香入，玉虎牵丝汲井回。

贾氏窥帘韩掾少，宓妃留枕魏王才。

春心莫共花争发，一寸想思一寸灰。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Li Shangyin

TO ONE UNNAMED II

A misty rain comes blowing with a wind from the east,

And wheels faintly thunder beyond Hibiscus Pool.

...Round the golden-toad lock, incense is creeping;

The jade tiger tells, on its cord, of water being drawn

A great lady once, from behind a screen, favoured a poor youth;

A fairy queen brought a bridal mat once for the ease of a prince and then vanished.

...Must human hearts blossom in spring, like all other flowers?

And of even this bright flame of love, shall there be only ashes?

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214

七言律诗

李商隐

筹笔驿

猿鸟犹疑畏简书，风云常为护储胥。

徒令上将挥神笔，终见降王走传车。

管乐有才原不忝，关张无命欲何如？

他年锦里经祠庙，梁父吟成恨有余。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Li Shangyin

IN THE CAMP OF THE SKETCHING BRUSH

Monkeys and birds are still alert for your orders

And winds and clouds eager to shield your fortress.

...You were master of the brush, and a sagacious general,

But your Emperor, defeated, rode the prison-cart.

You were abler than even the greatest Zhou statesmen,

Yet less fortunate than the two Shu generals who were killed in action.

And, though at your birth-place a temple has been built to you,

You never finished singing your Song of the Holy Mountain

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215

七言律诗

李商隐

无题之三

相见时难别亦难，东风无力百花残。

春蚕到死丝方尽，蜡炬成灰泪始乾。

晓镜但愁云鬓改，夜吟应觉月光寒。

蓬莱此去无多路，青鸟殷勤为探看。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Li Shangyin

TO ONE UNNAMED III

Time was long before I met her, but is longer since we parted,

And the east wind has arisen and a hundred flowers are gone,

And the silk-worms of spring will weave until they die

And every night the candles will weep their wicks away.

Mornings in her mirror she sees her hair-cloud changing,

Yet she dares the chill of moonlight with her evening song.

...It is not so very far to her Enchanted Mountain

O blue-birds, be listening!-Bring me what she says!

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216

七言律诗

李商隐

春雨

怅卧新春白袷衣，白门寥落意多违。

红楼隔雨相望冷，珠箔飘灯独自归。

远路应悲春晼晚，残宵犹得梦依稀。

玉珰缄札何由达，万里云罗一雁飞。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Li Shangyin

SPRING RAIN

I am lying in a white-lined coat while the spring approaches,

But am thinking only of the White Gate City where I cannot be.

...There are two red chambers fronting the cold, hidden by the rain,

And a lantern on a pearl screen swaying my lone heart homeward.

...The long road ahead will be full of new hardship,

With, late in the nights, brief intervals of dream.

Oh, to send you this message, this pair of jade earrings! --

I watch a lonely wildgoose in three thousand miles of cloud.

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217

七言律诗

李商隐

无题之四

凤尾香罗薄几重，碧文圆顶夜深缝。

扇裁月魄羞难掩，车走雷声语未通。

曾是寂寥金烬暗，断无消息石榴红。

斑骓只系垂杨岸，何处西南任好风？

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Li Shangyin

TO ONE UNNAMED IV

A faint phoenix-tail gauze, fragrant and doubled,

Lines your green canopy, closed for the night....

Will your shy face peer round a moon-shaped fan,

And your voice be heard hushing the rattle of my carriage?

It is quiet and quiet where your gold lamp dies,

How far can a pomegranate-blossom whisper?

...I will tether my horse to a river willow

And wait for the will of the southwest wind.

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218

七言律诗

李商隐

无题之五

重帷深下莫愁堂，卧后清宵细细长。

神女生涯原是梦，小姑居处本无郎。

风波不信菱枝弱，月露谁教桂叶香。

直道相思了无益，未妨惆怅是清狂。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Li Shangyin

TO ONE UNNAMED V

There are many curtains in your care-free house,

Where rapture lasts the whole night long.

...What are the lives of angels but dreams

If they take no lovers into their rooms?

...Storms are ravishing the nut-horns,

Moon- dew sweetening cinnamon-leaves

I know well enough naught can come of this union,

Yet how it serves to ease my heart!

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219

七言律诗

温庭筠

利洲南渡

澹然空水对斜晖，曲岛苍茫接翠微。

波上马嘶看棹去，柳边人歇待船归。

数丛沙草群鸥散，万顷江田一鹭飞。

谁解乘舟寻范蠡？五湖烟水独忘机。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Wen Tingyun

NEAR THE LIZHOU FERRY

The sun has set in the water's clear void,

And little blue islands are one with the sky.

On the bank a horse neighs. A boat goes by.

People gather at a willow- clump and wait for the ferry.

Down by the sand-bushes sea-gulls are circling,

Over the wide river-lands flies an egret.

...Can you guess why I sail, like an ancient wise lover,

Through the misty Five Lakes, forgetting words?

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220

七言律诗

温庭筠

苏武庙

苏武魂销汉使前，古祠高树两茫然。

云边雁断胡天月，陇上羊归塞草烟。

回日楼台非甲帐，去时冠剑是丁年。

茂陵不见封侯印，空向秋波哭逝川。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Wen Tingyun

THE TEMPLE OF SU WU

Though our envoy, Su Wu, is gone, body and soul,

This temple survives, these trees endure....

Wildgeese through the clouds are still calling to the moon there

And hill-sheep unshepherded graze along the border.

...Returning, he found his country changed

Since with youthful cap and sword he had left it.

His bitter adventures had won him no title....

Autumn-waves endlessly sob in the river.

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221

七言律诗

薛逢

宫词

十二楼中尽晓妆，望仙楼上望君王。

锁衔金兽连环冷，水滴铜龙昼漏长。

云髻罢梳还对镜，罗衣欲换更添香。

遥窥正殿帘开处，袍裤宫人扫御床。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Xue Feng

A PALACE POEM

In twelve chambers the ladies, decked for the day,

Peer afar for their lord from their Fairy-View Lodge;

The golden toad guards the lock on the door-chain,

And the bronze-dragon water-clock drips through the morning

Till one of them, tilting a mirror, combs her cloud of hair

And chooses new scent and a change of silk raiment;

For she sees, between screen-panels, deep in the palace,

Eunuchs in court-dress preparing a bed.

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222

七言律诗

秦韬玉

贫女

蓬门未识绮罗香，拟托良媒益自伤。

谁爱风流高格调，共怜时世俭梳妆。

敢将十指夸针巧，不把双眉斗画长。

苦恨年年压金线，为他人作嫁衣裳。

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Seven-character-regular-verse

Qin Taoyu

A POOR GIRL

Living under a thatch roof, never wearing fragrant silk,

She longs to arrange a marriage, but how could she dare?

Who would know her simple face the loveliest of them all

When we choose for worldliness, not for worth?

Her fingers embroider beyond compare,

But she cannot vie with painted brows;

And year after year she has sewn gold thread

On bridal robes for other girls.

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223

乐府

沈佺期

古意呈补阙乔知之

卢家少妇郁金香，海燕双栖玳瑁梁。

九月寒砧催木叶，十年征戍忆辽阳。

白狼河北音书断，丹凤城南秋夜长。

谁为含愁独不见，更教明月照流黄。

又作独不见

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Shen Quanqi

BEYOND SEEING

A girl of the Lu clan who lives in Golden-Wood Hall,

Where swallows perch in pairs on beams of tortoiseshell,

Hears the washing-mallets' cold beat shake the leaves down.

...The Liaoyang expedition will be gone ten years,

And messages are lost in the White Wolf River.

...Here in the City of the Red Phoenix autumn nights are long,

Where one who is heart-sick to see beyond seeing,

Sees only moonlight on the yellow-silk wave of her loom.

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224

五言绝句

王维

鹿柴

空山不见人，但闻人语响。

返景入深林，复照青苔上。

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Five-character-quatrain

Wang Wei

DEER-PARK HERMITAGE

There seems to be no one on the empty mountain....

And yet I think I hear a voice,

Where sunlight, entering a grove,

Shines back to me from the green moss.

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225

五言绝句

王维

竹里馆

独坐幽篁里，弹琴复长啸。

深林人不知，明月来相照。

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Five-character-quatrain

Wang Wei

IN A RETREAT AMONG BAMBOOS

Leaning alone in the close bamboos,

I am playing my lute and humming a song

Too softly for anyone to hear --

Except my comrade, the bright moon.

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226

五言绝句

王维

送别

山中相送罢，日暮掩柴扉。

春草明年绿，王孙归不归。

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Five-character-quatrain

Wang Wei

A PARTING

Friend, I have watched you down the mountain

Till now in the dark I close my thatch door....

Grasses return again green in the spring,

But O my Prince of Friends, do you?

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227

五言绝句

王维

相思

红豆生南国，春来发几枝。

愿君多采撷，此物最相思。

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Five-character-quatrain

Wang Wei

ONE-HEARTED

When those red berries come in springtime,

Flushing on your southland branches,

Take home an armful, for my sake,

As a symbol of our love.

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228

五言绝句

王维

杂诗

君自故乡来，应知故乡事。

来日绮窗前，寒梅著花未。

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Five-character-quatrain

Wang Wei

LINES

You who have come from my old country,

Tell me what has happened there ! --

Was the plum, when you passed my silken window,

Opening its first cold blossom?

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229

五言绝句

裴迪

送崔九

归山深浅去，须尽丘壑美。

莫学武陵人，暂游桃源里。

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Five-character-quatrain

Pei Di

A FAREWELL TO CUI

Though you think to return to this maze of mountains,

Oh, let them brim your heart with wonder!....

Remember the fisherman from Wuling

Who had only a day in the Peach-Blossom Country.

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230

五言绝句

祖咏

终南望余雪

终南阴岭秀，积雪浮云端。

林表明霁色，城中增暮寒。

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Five-character-quatrain

Zu Young

ON SEEING THE SNOW-PEAK OF ZHONGNAN

See how Zhongnan Mountain soars

With its white top over floating clouds --

And a warm sky opening at the snow-line

While the town in the valley grows colder and colder.

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231

五言绝句

孟浩然

宿建德江

移舟泊烟渚，日暮客愁新。

野旷天低树，江清月近人。

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Five-character-quatrain

Meng Haoran

A NIGHT-MOORING ON THE JIANDE RIVER

While my little boat moves on its mooring of mist,

And daylight wanes, old memories begin....

How wide the world was, how close the trees to heaven,

And how clear in the water the nearness of the moon!

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232

五言绝句

孟浩然

春晓

春眠不觉晓，处处闻啼鸟。

夜来风雨声，花落知多少。

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Five-character-quatrain

Meng Haoran

A SPRING MORNING

I awake light-hearted this morning of spring,

Everywhere round me the singing of birds --

But now I remember the night, the storm,

And I wonder how many blossoms were broken.

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233

五言绝句

李白

夜思

床前明月光，疑是地上霜。

举头望明月，低头思故乡。

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Five-character-quatrain

Li Bai

IN THE QUIET NIGHT

So bright a gleam on the foot of my bed --

Could there have been a frost already?

Lifting myself to look, I found that it was moonlight.

Sinking back again, I thought suddenly of home.

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234

五言绝句

李白

怨情

美人卷珠帘，深坐蹙蛾眉。

但见泪痕湿，不知心恨谁。

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Five-character-quatrain

Li Bai

A BITTER LOVE

How beautiful she looks, opening the pearly casement,

And how quiet she leans, and how troubled her brow is!

You may see the tears now, bright on her cheek,

But not the man she so bitterly loves.

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235

五言绝句

杜甫

八阵图

功盖三分国，名成八阵图。

江流石不转，遗恨失吞吴。

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Five-character-quatrain

Du Fu

THE EIGHT-SIDED FORTRESS

The Three Kingdoms, divided, have been bound by his greatness.

The Eight-Sided Fortress is founded on his fame;

Beside the changing river, it stands stony as his grief

That he never conquered the Kingdom of Wu.

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236

五言绝句

王之涣

登鹳雀楼

白日依山尽，黄河入海流。

欲穷千里目，更上一层楼。

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Five-character-quatrain

Wang Zhihuan

AT HERON LODGE

Mountains cover the white sun,

And oceans drain the golden river;

But you widen your view three hundred miles

By going up one flight of stairs.

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237

五言绝句

刘长卿

送灵澈

苍苍竹林寺，杳杳钟声晚。

荷笠带斜阳，青山独归远。

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Five-character-quatrain

Liu Changqing

ON PARTING WITH THE BUDDHIST PILGRIM LING CHE

From the temple, deep in its tender bamboos,

Comes the low sound of an evening bell,

While the hat of a pilgrim carries the sunset

Farther and farther down the green mountain.

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238

五言绝句

刘长卿

弹琴

泠泠七弦上，静听松风寒。

古调虽自爱，今人多不弹。

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Five-character-quatrain

Liu Changqing

ON HEARING A LUTE-PLAYER

Your seven strings are like the voice

Of a cold wind in the pines,

Singing old beloved songs

Which no one cares for any more.

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239

五言绝句

刘长卿

送上人

孤云将野鹤，岂向人间住。

莫买沃洲山，时人已知处。

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Five-character-quatrain

Liu Changqing

FAREWELL TO A BUDDHIST MONK

Can drifting clouds and white storks

Be tenants in this world of ours? --

Or you still live on Wuzhou Mountain,

Now that people are coming here?

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240

五言绝句

韦应物

秋夜寄邱员外

怀君属秋夜，散步咏凉天。

空山松子落，幽人应未眠。

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Five-character-quatrain

Wei Yingwu

AN AUTUMN NIGHT MESSAGE TO QIU

As I walk in the cool of the autumn night,

Thinking of you, singing my poem,

I hear a mountain pine-cone fall....

You also seem to be awake.

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241

五言绝句

李端

听筝

鸣筝金粟柱，素手玉房前。

欲得周郎顾，时时误拂弦。

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Five-character-quatrain

Li Duan

ON HEARING HER PLAY THE HARP

Her hands of white jade by a window of snow

Are glimmering on a golden-fretted harp --

And to draw the quick eye of Chou Yu,

She touches a wrong note now and then.

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242

五言绝句

王建

新嫁娘

三日入厨下，洗手作羹汤。

未谙姑食性，先遣小姑尝。

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Five-character-quatrain

Wang Jian

A BRIDE

On the third day, taking my place to cook,

Washing my hands to make the bridal soup,

I decide that not my mother-in-law

But my husband's young sister shall have the fiat taste.

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243

五言绝句

权德舆

玉台体

昨夜裙带解，今朝蟢子飞。

铅华不可弃，莫是□砧归。

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Five-character-quatrain

Quan Deyu

THE JADE DRESSING-TABLE

Last night my girdle came undone,

And this morning a luck-beetle flew over my bed.

So here are my paints and here are my powders --

And a welcome for my yoke again.

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244

五言绝句

柳宗元

江雪

千山鸟飞绝，万径人踪灭。

孤舟蓑笠翁，独钓寒江雪。

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Five-character-quatrain

Liu Zongyuan

RIVER-SNOW

A hundred mountains and no bird,

A thousand paths without a footprint;

A little boat, a bamboo cloak,

An old man fishing in the cold river-snow.

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245

五言绝句

元稹

行宫

寥落古行宫，宫花寂寞红。

白头宫女在，闲坐说玄宗。

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Five-character-quatrain

Yuan Zhen

THE SUMMER PALACE

In the faded old imperial palace,

Peonies are red, but no one comes to see them....

The ladies-in-waiting have grown white-haired

Debating the pomps of Emperor Xuanzong.

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246

五言绝句

白居易

问刘十九

绿螘新醅酒，红泥小火炉。

晚来天欲雪，能饮一杯无。

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Five-character-quatrain

Bai Juyi

A SUGGESTION TO MY FRIEND LIU

There's a gleam of green in an old bottle,

There's a stir of red in the quiet stove,

There's a feeling of snow in the dusk outside --

What about a cup of wine inside?

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247

五言绝句

张祜

何满子

故国三千里，深宫二十年。

一声何满子，双泪落君前。

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Five-character-quatrain

Zhang Hu

SHE SINGS AN OLD SONG

A lady of the palace these twenty years,

She has lived here a thousand miles from her home-

Yet ask her for this song and, with the first few words of it,

See how she tries to hold back her tears.

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248

五言绝句

李商隐

登乐游原

向晚意不适，驱车登古原。

夕阳无限好，只是近黄昏。

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Five-character-quatrain

Li Shangyin

THE LEYOU TOMBS

With twilight shadows in my heart

I have driven up among the Leyou Tombs

To see the sun, for all his glory,

Buried by the coming night.

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249

五言绝句

贾岛

寻隐者不遇

松下问童子，言师采药去。

只在此山中，云深不知处。

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Five-character-quatrain

Jia Dao

A NOTE LEFT FOR AN ABSENT ECLUSE

When I questioned your pupil, under a pine-tree,

"My teacher," he answered, " went for herbs,

But toward which corner of the mountain,

How can I tell, through all these clouds ?"

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250

五言绝句

李频

渡汉江

岭外音书绝，经冬复立春。

近乡情更怯，不敢问来人。

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Five-character-quatrain

Li Pin

CROSSING THE HAN RIVER

Away from home, I was longing for news

Winter after winter, spring after spring.

Now, nearing my village, meeting people,

I dare not ask a single question.

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251

五言绝句

金昌绪

春怨

打起黄莺儿，莫教枝上啼。

啼时惊妾梦，不得到辽西。

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Five-character-quatrain

Jin Changzu

A SPRING SIGH

Drive the orioles away,

All their music from the trees....

When she dreamed that she went to Liaoxi Camp

To join him there, they wakened her

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252

五言绝句

西鄙人

哥舒歌

北斗七星高，哥舒夜带刀。

至今窥牧马，不敢过临洮。

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Five-character-quatrain

Xibiren

GENERAL GE SHU

This constellation, with its seven high stars,

Is Ge Shu lifting his sword in the night:

And no more barbarians, nor their horses, nor cattle,

Dare ford the river boundary.

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253

乐府

崔颢

长干行二首之一

君家何处住，妾住在横塘。

停船暂借问，或恐是同乡。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Cui Hao

A SONG OF CHANGGAN I

"Tell me, where do you live? --

Near here, by the fishing-pool?

Let's hold our boats together, let's see

If we belong in the same town."

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254

乐府

崔颢

长干行二首之二

家临九江水，来去九江侧。

同是长干人，生小不相识。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Cui Hao

A SONG OF CHANGGAN II

"Yes, I live here, by the river;

I have sailed on it many and many a time.

Both of us born in Changgan, you and I!

Why haven't we always known each other?"

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255

乐府

李白

玉阶怨

玉阶生白露，夜久侵罗袜。

却下水晶帘，玲珑望秋月。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

A SIGH FROM A STAIRCASE OF JADE

Her jade-white staircase is cold with dew;

Her silk soles are wet, she lingered there so long....

Behind her closed casement, why is she still waiting,

Watching through its crystal pane the glow of the autumn moon?

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256

乐府

卢纶

塞下曲四首之一

鹫翎金仆姑，燕尾绣蝥弧。

独立扬新令，千营共一呼。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Lu Lun

BORDER-SONGS I

His golden arrow is tipped with hawk's feathers,

His embroidered silk flag has a tail like a swallow.

One man, arising, gives a new order

To the answering shout of a thousand tents.

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257

乐府

卢纶

塞下曲四首之二

林暗草惊风，将军夜引弓。

平明寻白羽，没在石棱中。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Lu Lun

BORDER-SONGS II

The woods are black and a wind assails the grasses,

Yet the general tries night archery --

And next morning he finds his white-plumed arrow

Pointed deep in the hard rock.

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258

乐府

卢纶

塞下曲四首之三

月黑雁飞高，单于夜遁逃。

欲将轻骑逐，大雪满弓刀。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Lu Lun

BORDER-SONGS III

High in the faint moonlight, wildgeese are soaring.

Tartar chieftains are fleeing through the dark --

And we chase them, with horses lightly burdened

And a burden of snow on our bows and our swords.

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259

乐府

卢纶

塞下曲四首之四

野幕蔽琼筵，羌戎贺劳旋。

醉和金甲舞，雷鼓动山川。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Lu Lun

BORDER-SONGS IV

Let feasting begin in the wild camp!

Let bugles cry our victory!

Let us drink, let us dance in our golden armour!

Let us thunder on rivers and hills with our drums!

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260

乐府

李益

江南曲

嫁得瞿塘贾，朝朝误妾期。

早知潮有信，嫁与弄潮儿。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Yi

A SONG OF THE SOUTHERN RIVER

Since I married the merchant of Qutang

He has failed each day to keep his word....

Had I thought how regular the tide is,

I might rather have chosen a river-boy.

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261

七言绝句

贺知章

回乡偶书

少小离家老大回，乡音无改鬓毛衰；

儿童相见不相识，笑问客从何处来。

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Seven-character-quatrain

He Zhizhang

COMING HOME

I left home young. I return old;

Speaking as then, but with hair grown thin;

And my children, meeting me, do not know me.

They smile and say: "Stranger, where do you come from?"

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262

七言绝句

张旭

桃花溪

隐隐飞桥隔野烟，石矶西畔问渔船；

桃花尽日随流水，洞在清溪何处边？

又作溪

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Seven-character-quatrain

Zhang Xu

PEACH-BLOSSOM RIVER

A bridge flies away through a wild mist,

Yet here are the rocks and the fisherman's boat.

Oh, if only this river of floating peach-petals

Might lead me at last to the mythical cave!

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263

七言绝句

王维

九月九日忆山东兄弟

独在异乡为异客，每逢佳节倍思亲。

遥知兄弟登高处，遍插茱萸少一人。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Wang Wei

ON THE MOUNTAIN HOLIDAY

THINKING OF MY BROTHERS IN SHANDONG

All alone in a foreign land,

I am twice as homesick on this day

When brothers carry dogwood up the mountain,

Each of them a branch-and my branch missing.

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264

七言绝句

王昌龄

芙蓉楼送辛渐

寒雨连江夜入吴，平明送客楚山孤。

洛阳亲友如相问，一片冰心在玉壶。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Wang Changling

AT HIBISCUS INN

PARTING WITH XIN JIAN

With this cold night-rain hiding the river, you have come into Wu.

In the level dawn, all alone, you will be starting for the mountains of Chu.

Answer, if they ask of me at Loyang:

"One-hearted as ice in a crystal vase."

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265

七言绝句

王昌龄

闺怨

闺中少妇不知愁，春日凝妆上翠楼。

忽见陌头杨柳色，悔教夫婿觅封侯。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Wang Changling

IN HER QUIET WINDOW

Too young to have learned what sorrow means,

Attired for spring, she climbs to her high chamber....

The new green of the street-willows is wounding her heart --

Just for a title she sent him to war.

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266

七言绝句

王昌龄

春宫曲

昨夜风开露井桃，未央前殿月轮高。

平阳歌舞新承宠，帘外春寒赐锦袍。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Wang Changling

A SONG OF THE SPRING PALACE

Last night, while a gust blew peach-petals open

And the moon shone high on the Palace Beyond Time,

The Emperor gave Pingyang, for her dancing,

Brocades against the cold spring-wind.

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267

七言绝句

王翰

凉州词

葡萄美酒夜光杯，欲饮琵琶马上催。

醉卧沙场君莫笑，古来征战几人回。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Wang Han

A SONG OF LIANGZHOU

They sing, they drain their cups of jade,

They strum on horseback their guitars.

...Why laugh when they fall asleep drunk on the sand ? --

How many soldiers ever come home?

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268

七言绝句

李白

送孟浩然之广陵

故人西辞黄鹤楼，烟花三月下扬州。

孤帆远影碧空尽，惟见长江天际流。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Li Bai

A FAREWELL TO MENG HAORAN

ON HIS WAY TO YANGZHOU

You have left me behind, old friend, at the Yellow Crane Terrace,

On your way to visit Yangzhou in the misty month of flowers;

Your sail, a single shadow, becomes one with the blue sky,

Till now I see only the river, on its way to heaven.

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269

七言绝句

李白

下江陵

朝辞白帝彩云间，千里江陵一日还。

两岸猿声啼不住，轻舟已过万重山。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Li Bai

THROUGH THE YANGZI GORGES

From the walls of Baidi high in the coloured dawn

To Jiangling by night-fall is three hundred miles,

Yet monkeys are still calling on both banks behind me

To my boat these ten thousand mountains away.

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270

七言绝句

岑参

逢入京使

故园东望路漫漫，双袖龙钟泪不乾。

马上相逢无纸笔，凭君传语报平安。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Cen Can

ON MEETING A MESSENGER TO THE CAPITAL

It's a long way home, a long way east.

I am old and my sleeve is wet with tears.

We meet on horseback. I have no means of writing.

Tell them three words: "He is safe."

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271

七言绝句

杜甫

江南逢李龟年

岐王宅里寻常见，崔九堂前几度闻。

正是江南好风景，落花时节又逢君。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Du Fu

ON MEETING LI GUINIAN DOWN THE RIVER

I met you often when you were visiting princes

And when you were playing in noblemen's halls.

...Spring passes.... Far down the river now,

I find you alone under falling petals.

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272

七言绝句

韦应物

滁州西涧

独怜幽草涧边生，上有黄鹂深树鸣。

春潮带雨晚来急，野渡无人舟自横。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Wei Yingwu

AT CHUZHOU ON THE WESTERN STREAM

Where tender grasses rim the stream

And deep boughs trill with mango-birds,

On the spring flood of last night's rain

The ferry-boat moves as though someone were poling.

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273

七言绝句

张继

枫桥夜泊

月落乌啼霜满天，江枫渔火对愁眠。

姑苏城外寒山寺，夜半钟声到客船。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Zhang Ji

A NIGHT-MOORING NEAR MAPLE BRIDGE

While I watch the moon go down, a crow caws through the frost;

Under the shadows of maple-trees a fisherman moves with his torch;

And I hear, from beyond Suzhou, from the temple on Cold Mountain,

Ringing for me, here in my boat, the midnight bell.

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274

七言绝句

韩翃

寒食

春城无处不飞花，寒食东风御柳斜。

日暮汉宫传蜡烛，轻烟散入五侯家。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Han Hong

AFTER THE DAY OF NO FIRE

Petals of spring fly all through the city

From the wind in the willows of the Imperial River.

And at dusk, from the palace, candles are given out

To light first the mansions of the Five Great Lords.

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275

七言绝句

刘方平

月夜

更深月色半人家，北斗阑干南斗斜。

今夜偏知春气暖，虫声新透绿窗沙。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Liu Fangping

A MOONLIGHT NIGHT

When the moon has coloured half the house,

With the North Star at its height and the South Star setting,

I can fed the first motions of the warm air of spring

In the singing of an insect at my green-silk window.

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276

七言绝句

刘方平

春怨

纱窗日落渐黄昏，金屋无人见泪痕。

寂寞空庭春欲晚，梨花满地不开门。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Liu Fangping

SPRING HEART-BREAK

With twilight passing her silken window,

She weeps alone in her chamber of gold

For spring is departing from a desolate garden,

And a drift of pear-petals is closing a door.

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277

七言绝句

柳中庸

征人怨

岁岁金河复玉关，朝朝马策与刀环。

三春白雪归青冢，万里黄河绕黑山。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Liu Zhongyong

A TROOPER'S BURDEN

For years, to guard the Jade Pass and the River of Gold,

With our hands on our horse-whips and our swordhilts,

We have watched the green graves change to snow

And the Yellow Stream ring the Black Mountain forever.

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278

七言绝句

顾况

宫词

玉楼天半起笙歌，风送宫嫔笑语和。

月殿影开闻夜漏，水晶帘卷近秋河。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Gu Kuang

A PALACE POEM

High above, from a jade chamber, songs float half-way to heaven,

The palace-girls' gay voices are mingled with the wind --

But now they are still, and you hear a water-clock drip in the Court of the Moon....

They have opened the curtain wide, they are facing the River of Stars.

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279

七言绝句

李益

夜上受降城闻笛

回乐峰前沙似雪，受降城外月如霜。

不知何处吹芦管，一夜征人尽望乡。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Li Yi

ON HEARING A FLUTE AT NIGHT

FROM THE WALL OF SHOUXIANG

The sand below the border-mountain lies like snow,

And the moon like frost beyond the city-wall,

And someone somewhere, playing a flute,

Has made the soldiers homesick all night long.

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280

七言绝句

刘禹锡

乌衣巷

朱雀桥边野草花，乌衣巷口夕阳斜。

旧时王谢堂前燕，飞入寻常百姓家。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Liu Yuxi

BLACKTAIL ROW

Grass has run wild now by the Bridge of Red-Birds;

And swallows' wings, at sunset, in Blacktail Row

Where once they visited great homes,

Dip among doorways of the poor.

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281

七言绝句

刘禹锡

春词

新妆宜面下朱楼，深锁春光一院愁。

行到中庭数花朵，蜻蜓飞上玉搔头。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Liu Yuxi

A SPRING SONG

In gala robes she comes down from her chamber

Into her courtyard, enclosure of spring....

When she tries from the centre to count the flowers,

On her hairpin of jade a dragon-fly poises.

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282

七言绝句

白居易

后宫词

泪湿罗巾梦不成，夜深前殿按歌声。

红颜未老恩先断，斜倚薰笼坐到明。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Bai Juyi

A SONG OF THE PALACE

Her tears are spent, but no dreams come.

She can hear the others singing through the night.

She has lost his love. Alone with her beauty,

She leans till dawn on her incense-pillow.

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283

七言绝句

张祜

赠内人

禁门宫树月痕过，媚眼惟看宿鹭窠。

斜拔玉钗灯影畔，剔开红焰救飞蛾。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Zhang Hu

OF ONE IN THE FORBIDDEN CITY

When the moonlight, reaching a tree by the gate,

Shows her a quiet bird on its nest,

She removes her jade hairpins and sits in the shadow

And puts out a flame where a moth was flying.

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284

七言绝句

张祜

集灵台之一

日光斜照集灵台，红树花迎晓露开。

昨夜上皇新授箓，太真含笑入帘来。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Zhang Hu

ON THE TERRACE OF ASSEMBLED ANGELS I

The sun has gone slanting over a lordly roof

And red-blossoming branches have leaned toward the dew

Since the Emperor last night summoned a new favourite

And Lady Yang's bright smile came through the curtains.

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285

七言绝句

张祜

集灵台之二

虢国夫人承主恩，平明骑马入宫门。

却嫌脂粉污颜色，淡扫蛾眉朝至尊。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Zhang Hu

ON THE TERRACE OF ASSEMBLED ANGELS II

The Emperor has sent for Lady Guoguo.

In the morning, riding toward the palace-gate,

Disdainful of the paint that might have marred her beauty,

To meet him she smooths her two moth-tiny eyebrows.

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286

七言绝句

张祜

题金陵渡

金陵津渡小山楼，一宿行人自可愁。

潮落夜江斜月里，两三星火是瓜州。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Zhang Hu

AT NANJING FERRY

This one-story inn at Nanjing ferry

Is a miserable lodging-place for the night --

But across the dead moon's ebbing tide,

Lights from Guazhou beckon on the river.

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287

七言绝句

朱庆余

宫词

寂寂花时闭院门，美人相并立琼轩。

含情欲说宫中事，鹦鹉前头不敢言。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Zhu Qingyu

A SONG OF THE PALACE

Now that the palace-gate has softly closed on its flowers,

Ladies file out to their pavilion of jade,

Abrim to the lips with imperial gossip

But not daring to breathe it with a parrot among them.

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288

七言绝句

朱庆余

近试上张水部

洞房昨夜停红烛，待晓堂前拜舅姑。

妆罢低声问夫婿，画眉深浅入时无。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Zhu Qingyu

ON THE EVE OF GOVERNMENT EXAMINATIONS

TO SECRETARY ZHANG

Out go the great red wedding-chamber candles.

Tomorrow in state the bride faces your parents.

She has finished preparing; she asks of you meekly

Whether her eyebrows are painted in fashion.

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289

七言绝句

杜牧

将赴吴兴登乐游原

清时有味是无能，闲爱孤云静爱僧。

欲把一麾江海去，乐游原上望昭陵。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Du Mu

I CLIMB TO THE LEYOU TOMBS

BEFORE LEAVING FOR WUXING

Even in this good reign, how can I serve?

The lone cloud rather, the Buddhist peace....

Once more, before crossing river and sea,

I face the great Emperor's mountain-tomb.

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290

七言绝句

杜牧

赤壁

折戟沈沙铁未销，自将磨洗认前朝。

东风不与周郎便，铜雀春深锁二乔。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Du Mu

BY THE PURPLE CLIFF

On a part of a spear still unrusted in the sand

I have burnished the symbol of an ancient kingdom....

Except for a wind aiding General Zhou Yu,

Spring would have sealed both Qiao girls in CopperBird Palace.

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291

七言绝句

杜牧

泊秦淮

烟笼寒水月笼沙，夜泊秦淮近酒家。

商女不知亡国恨，隔江犹唱后庭花。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Du Mu

A MOORING ON THE QIN HUAI RIVER

Mist veils the cold stream, and moonlight the sand,

As I moor in the shadow of a river-tavern,

Where girls, with no thought of a perished kingdom,

Gaily echo A Song of Courtyard Flowers.

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292

七言绝句

杜牧

寄扬州韩绰判官

青山隐隐水迢迢，秋尽江南草未凋。

二十四桥明月夜，玉人何处教吹箫。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Du Mu

A MESSAGE TO HAN CHO THE YANGZHOU MAGISTRATE

There are faint green mountains and far green waters,

And grasses in this river region not yet faded by autumn;

And clear in the moon on the Twenty-Four Bridges,

Girls white as jade are teaching flute-music.

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293

七言绝句

杜牧

遣怀

落魄江湖载酒行，楚腰纤细掌中轻。

十年一觉扬州梦，赢得青楼薄幸名。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Du Mu

A CONFESSION

With my wine-bottle, watching by river and lake

For a lady so tiny as to dance on my palm,

I awake, after dreaming ten years in Yangzhou,

Known as fickle, even in the Street of Blue Houses.

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294

七言绝句

杜牧

秋夕

银烛秋光冷画屏，轻罗小扇扑流萤。

天阶夜色凉如水，坐看牵牛织女星。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Du Mu

IN THE AUTUMN NIGHT

Her candle-light is silvery on her chill bright screen.

Her little silk fan is for fireflies....

She lies watching her staircase cold in the moon,

And two stars parted by the River of Heaven.

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295

七言绝句

杜牧

赠别之一

娉娉袅袅十三余，豆蔻梢头二月初。

春风十里扬州路，卷上珠帘总不如。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Du Mu

PARTING I

She is slim and supple and not yet fourteen,

The young spring-tip of a cardamon-spray.

On the Yangzhou Road for three miles in the breeze

Every pearl-screen is open. But there's no one like her.

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296

七言绝句

杜牧

赠别之二

多情却似总无情，唯觉樽前笑不成。

蜡烛有心还惜别，替人垂泪到天明。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Du Mu

Parting II

How can a deep love seem deep love,

How can it smile, at a farewell feast?

Even the candle, feeling our sadness,

Weeps, as we do, all night long.

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297

七言绝句

杜牧

金谷园

繁华事散逐香尘，流水无情草自春。

日暮东风怨啼鸟，落花犹似坠楼人。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Du Mu

THE GARDEN OF THE GOLDEN VALLEY

Stories of passion make sweet dust,

Calm water, grasses unconcerned.

At sunset, when birds cry in the wind,

Petals are falling like a girl s robe long ago.

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298

七言绝句

李商隐

夜雨寄北

君问归期未有期，巴山夜雨涨秋池。

何当共剪西窗烛，却话巴山夜雨时。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Li Shangyin

NOTE ON A RAINY NIGHT TO A FRIEND IN THE NORTH

You ask me when I am coming. I do not know.

I dream of your mountains and autumn pools brimming all night with the rain.

Oh, when shall we be trimming wicks again, together in your western window?

When shall I be hearing your voice again, all night in the rain?

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299

七言绝句

李商隐

寄令狐郎中

嵩云秦树久离居，双鲤迢迢一纸笔。

休问梁园旧宾客，茂陵秋雨病相如。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Li Shangyin

A MESSAGE TO SECRETARY LINGHU

I am far from the clouds of Sung Mountain, a long way from trees in Qin;

And I send to you a message carried by two carp:

-- Absent this autumn from the Prince's garden,

There's a poet at Maoling sick in the rain.

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300

七言绝句

李商隐

为有

为有云屏无限娇，凤城寒尽怕春宵。

无端嫁得金龟婿，辜负香衾事早朝。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Li Shangyin

THERE IS ONLY ONE

There is only one Carved-Cloud, exquisite always-

Yet she dreads the spring, blowing cold in the palace,

When her husband, a Knight of the Golden Tortoise,

Will leave her sweet bed, to be early at court.

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301

七言绝句

李商隐

隋宫

乘兴南游不戒严，九重谁省谏书函。

春风举国裁宫锦，半作障泥半作帆。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Li Shangyin

THE SUI PALACE

When gaily the Emperor toured the south

Contrary to every warning,

His whole empire cut brocades,

Half for wheel-guards, half for sails.

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302

七言绝句

李商隐

瑶池

瑶池阿母绮窗开，黄竹歌声动地哀。

八骏日行三万里，穆王何事不重来。

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Seven-character-quatrain

LI SHANGYIN

THE JADE POOL

The Mother of Heaven, in her window by the Jade Pool,

Hears The Yellow Bamboo Song shaking the whole earth.

Where is Emperor Mu, with his eight horses running

Ten thousand miles a day? Why has he never come back?

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303

七言绝句

李商隐

嫦娥

云母屏风烛影深，长河渐落晓星沈。

嫦娥应悔偷灵药，碧海青天夜夜心。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Li Shangyin

TO THE MOON GODDESS

Now that a candle-shadow stands on the screen of carven marble

And the River of Heaven slants and the morning stars are low,

Are you sorry for having stolen the potion that has set you

Over purple seas and blue skies, to brood through the long nights?

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304

七言绝句

李商隐

贾生

宣室求贤访逐臣，贾生才调更无伦。

可怜夜半虚前席，不问苍生问鬼神。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Li Shangyin

JIASHENG

When the Emperor sought guidance from wise men, from exiles,

He found no calmer wisdom than that of young Jia

And assigned him the foremost council-seat at midnight,

Yet asked him about gods, instead of about people.

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305

七言绝句

温庭筠

瑶瑟怨

冰簟银床梦不成，碧天如水夜云轻。

雁声远过潇湘去，十二楼中月自明。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Wen Tingyun

SHE SIGHS ON HER JADE LUTE

A cool-matted silvery bed; but no dreams....

An evening sky as green as water, shadowed with tender clouds;

But far off over the southern rivers the calling of a wildgoose,

And here a twelve-story building, lonely under the moon.

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306

七言绝句

郑畋

马嵬坡

玄宗回马杨妃死，云雨难忘日月新。

终是圣明天子事，景阳宫井又何人。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Zheng Tian

ON MAWEI SLOPE

When the Emperor came back from his ride they had murdered Lady Yang --

That passion unforgettable through all the suns and moons

They had led him to forsake her by reminding him

Of an emperor slain with his lady once, in a well at Jingyang Palace.

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307

七言绝句

韩偓

已凉

碧阑干外绣帘垂，猩色屏风画折枝。

八尺龙须方锦褥，已凉天气未寒时。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Han Wu

COOLER WEATHER

Her jade-green alcove curtained thick with silk,

Her vermilion screen with its pattern of flowers,

Her eight- foot dragon-beard mat and her quilt brocaded in squares

Are ready now for nights that are neither warm nor cold.

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308

七言绝句

韦庄

金陵图

江雨霏霏江草齐，六朝如梦鸟空啼。

无情最是台城柳，依旧烟笼十里堤。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Wei Zhuang

A NANJING LANDSCAPE

Though a shower bends the river-grass, a bird is singing,

While ghosts of the Six Dynasties pass like a dream

Around the Forbidden City, under weeping willows

Which loom still for three miles along the misty moat.

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309

七言绝句

陈陶

陇西行

誓扫匈奴不顾身，五千貂锦丧胡尘。

可怜无定河边骨，犹是深闺梦里人。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Chen Tao

TURKESTAN

Thinking only of their vow that they would crush the Tartars- -

On the desert, clad in sable and silk, five thousand of them fell....

But arisen from their crumbling bones on the banks of the river at the border,

Dreams of them enter, like men alive, into rooms where their loves lie sleeping.

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310

七言绝句

张泌

寄人

别梦依依到谢家，小廊回合曲阑斜。

多情只有春庭月，犹为离人照落花。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Zhang Bi

A MESSAGE

I go in a dream to the house of Xie

Through a zigzag porch with arching rails

To a court where the spring moon lights for ever

Phantom flowers and a single figure.

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311

七言绝句

无名氏

杂诗

尽寒食雨草萋萋，著麦苗风柳映堤。

等是有家归未得，杜鹃休向耳边啼。

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Seven-character-quatrain

Wumingshi

THE DAY OF NO FIRE

As the holiday approaches, and grasses are bright after rain,

And the causeway gleams with willows, and wheatfields wave in the wind,

We are thinking of our kinsfolk, far away from us.

O cuckoo, why do you follow us, why do you call us home?

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312

乐府

王维

渭城曲

渭城朝雨邑轻尘，客舍青青柳色新。

劝君更尽一杯酒，西出阳关无故人。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Wang Wei

A SONG AT WEICHENG

A morning-rain has settled the dust in Weicheng;

Willows are green again in the tavern dooryard....

Wait till we empty one more cup --

West of Yang Gate there'll be no old friends.

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313

乐府

王维

秋夜曲

桂魄初生秋露微，轻罗已薄未更衣。

银筝夜久殷勤弄，心怯空房不忍归。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Wang Wei

A SONG OF AN AUTUMN NIGHT

Under the crescent moon a light autumn dew

Has chilled the robe she will not change --

And she touches a silver lute all night,

Afraid to go back to her empty room.

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314

乐府

王昌龄

长信怨

奉帚平明金殿开，且将团扇共徘徊。

玉颜不及寒鸦色，犹带昭阳日影来。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Wang Changling

A SIGH IN THE COURT OF PERPETUAL FAITH

She brings a broom at dawn to the Golden Palace doorway

And dusts the hall from end to end with her round fan,

And, for all her jade-whiteness, she envies a crow

Whose cold wings are kindled in the Court of the Bright Sun.

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315

乐府

王昌龄

出塞

秦时明月汉时关，万里长征人未还。

但使龙城飞将在，不教胡马渡阴山。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Wang Changling

OVER THE BORDER

The moon goes back to the time of Qin, the wall to the time of Han,

And the road our troops are travelling goes back three hundred miles....

Oh, for the Winged General at the Dragon City --

That never a Tartar horseman might cross the Yin Mountains!

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316

乐府

王之涣

出塞

黄河远上白云间，一片孤城万仞山。

羌笛何须怨杨柳，春风不度玉门关。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Wang Zhihuan

BEYOND THE BORDER

Where a yellow river climbs to the white clouds,

Near the one city-wall among ten-thousand-foot mountains,

A Tartar under the willows is lamenting on his flute

That spring never blows to him through the Jade Pass

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317

乐府

李白

清平调之一

云想衣裳花想容，春风拂槛露华浓。

若非群玉山头见，会向瑶台月下逢。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

A SONG OF PURE HAPPINESS I

Her robe is a cloud, her face a flower;

Her balcony, glimmering with the bright spring dew,

Is either the tip of earth's Jade Mountain

Or a moon- edged roof of paradise.

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318

乐府

李白

清平调之二

一枝红艳露凝香，云雨巫山枉断肠。

借问汉宫谁得似，可怜飞燕倚新妆。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

A SONG OF PURE HAPPINESS II

There's a perfume stealing moist from a shaft of red blossom,

And a mist, through the heart, from the magical Hill of Wu- -

The palaces of China have never known such beauty-

Not even Flying Swallow with all her glittering garments.

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319

乐府

李白

清平调之三

名花倾国两相欢，常得君王带笑看。

解释春风无限恨，沈香亭北倚阑干。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

A SONG OF PURE HAPPINESS III

Lovely now together, his lady and his flowers

Lighten for ever the Emperor's eye,

As he listens to the sighing of the far spring wind

Where she leans on a railing in the Aloe Pavilion.

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320

乐府

杜秋娘

金缕衣

劝君莫惜金缕衣，劝君惜取少年时。

花开堪折直须折，莫待无花空折枝。

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Folk-song-styled-verse

Du Qiuniang

THE GOLD-THREADED ROBE

Covet not a gold-threaded robe,

Cherish only your young days!

If a bud open, gather it --

Lest you but wait for an empty bough.

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END

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【新旧约全书】Holy Bible, Chinese Union Version (GB), Textfile 20010201.

特朗普盟友马特·盖茨丑闻曝光：美国众议院报告披露的四项细节

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