224
五言絕句
王維
鹿柴

空山不見人, 但聞人語響。
返景入深林, 复照青苔上。


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.



225
五言絕句
王維
竹里館

獨坐幽篁里, 彈琴复長嘯。
深林人不知, 明月來相照。


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.



226
五言絕句
王維
送別

山中相送罷, 日暮掩柴扉。
春草明年綠, 王孫歸不歸。


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?



227
五言絕句
王維
相思

紅豆生南國, 春來發几枝。
愿君多采擷, 此物最相思。


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.



228
五言絕句
王維
雜詩

君自故鄉來, 應知故鄉事。
來日綺窗前, 寒梅著花未。


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?



229
五言絕句
裴迪
送崔九

歸山深淺去, 須盡丘壑美。
莫學武陵人, 暫游桃源里。


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.



230
五言絕句
祖詠
終南望余雪

終南陰岭秀, 積雪浮云端。
林表明霽色, 城中增暮寒。


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.



231
五言絕句
孟浩然
宿建德江

移舟泊煙渚, 日暮客愁新。
野曠天低樹, 江清月近人。


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!



232
五言絕句
孟浩然
春曉

春眠不覺曉, 處處聞啼鳥。
夜來風雨聲, 花落知多少。


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.



233
五言絕句
李白
夜思

床前明月光, 疑是地上霜。
舉頭望明月, 低頭思故鄉。


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.



234
五言絕句
李白
怨情

美人卷珠帘, 深坐蹙蛾眉。
但見淚痕濕, 不知心恨誰。


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.



235
五言絕句
杜甫
八陣圖

功蓋三分國, 名成八陣圖。
江流石不轉, 遺恨失吞吳。


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.



236
五言絕句
王之渙
登鸛雀樓

白日依山盡, 黃河入海流。
欲窮千里目, 更上一層樓。


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.



237
五言絕句
劉長卿
送靈澈

蒼蒼竹林寺, 杳杳鐘聲晚。
荷笠帶斜陽, 青山獨歸遠。


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.



238
五言絕句
劉長卿
彈琴

泠泠七弦上, 靜听松風寒。
古調雖自愛, 今人多不彈。


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.



239
五言絕句
劉長卿
送上人

孤云將野鶴, 豈向人間住。
莫買沃洲山, 時人已知處。


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?



240
五言絕句
韋應物
秋夜寄邱員外

怀君屬秋夜, 散步詠涼天。
空山松子落, 幽人應未眠。


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.



241
五言絕句
李端
听箏

鳴箏金粟柱, 素手玉房前。
欲得周郎顧, 時時誤拂弦。


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.



242
五言絕句
王建
新嫁娘

三日入廚下, 洗手作羹湯。
未諳姑食性, 先遣小姑嘗。


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.



243
五言絕句
權德輿
玉台体

昨夜裙帶解, 今朝蟢子飛。
鉛華不可棄, 莫是□砧歸。


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.



244
五言絕句
柳宗元
江雪

千山鳥飛絕, 万徑人蹤滅。
孤舟蓑笠翁, 獨釣寒江雪。


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.



245
五言絕句
元稹
行宮

寥落古行宮, 宮花寂寞紅。
白頭宮女在, 閒坐說玄宗。


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.



246
五言絕句
白居易
問劉十九

綠螘新醅酒, 紅泥小火爐。
晚來天欲雪, 能飲一杯無。


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?



247
五言絕句
張祜
何滿子

故國三千里, 深宮二十年。
一聲何滿子, 雙淚落君前。


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.



248
五言絕句
李商隱
登樂游原

向晚意不适, 驅車登古原。
夕陽無限好, 只是近黃昏。


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.



249
五言絕句
賈島
尋隱者不遇

松下問童子, 言師采藥去。
只在此山中, 云深不知處。


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 ?"



250
五言絕句
李頻
渡漢江

岭外音書絕, 經冬复立春。
近鄉情更怯, 不敢問來人。


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.



251
五言絕句
金昌緒
春怨

打起黃鶯儿, 莫教枝上啼。
啼時惊妾夢, 不得到遼西。


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



252
五言絕句
西鄙人
哥舒歌

北斗七星高, 哥舒夜帶刀。
至今窺牧馬, 不敢過臨洮。


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.