Poetry - June 2026 - Tang Dynasty Jueju Poetry
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| Calligraphy in the hand of Tang dynasty poet Li Bai |
This month, I have gathered together some of my own interpretations of Tang dynasty jueju poetry. These four-line poems are compact, dense and hauntingly beautiful: windows onto an ancient world that seems to wake again before the reader’s eyes. There is so much I could write about the Tang era, its poets and the form itself, but that is for another time and another place. Here, I will let the poems speak for themselves.
I wake in bright moonlight.
I had dreamed of frost in Jiannan.
I raise my eyes and see the moon.
I close my eyes and see my home.
after Li Bai
床前明月光
疑是地上霜
舉頭望明月
低頭思故鄉
*
Above the mountains,
no bird in flight.
Old man in a bamboo hat
fishing the river of snow.
after Liu Zongyuan
千山鳥飛絕
萬徑人蹤滅
孤舟簑笠翁
獨釣寒江雪
*
Dawn. Plum blossom:
white silk in the wind –
the last snow.
Spring.
after Wang Zhenbai
靚妝才罷粉痕新
迨曉風回散玉塵
若遣有情應悵望
已兼殘雪又兼春
*
I dreamed of red beans
growing in the southern country –
of you, gathering them.
Such strange grief.
after Wang Wei
紅豆生南國
春來發幾枝
願君多采擷
此物最相思
*
Only the Yangtze River
flows to the edge of heaven.
Jiangnan, flower-mist in March.
His sail's shadow lost in blue.
after Li Bai
故人西辭黃鶴樓
煙花三月下揚州
孤帆遠影碧空盡
惟見長江天際流
*
Weicheng. Morning rain
settles the road's dust –
one more cup, I urge you,
before you ride beyond Yang Pass.
after Wang Wei
渭城朝雨浥輕塵
客舍青青柳色新
勸君更盡一杯酒
西出陽關無故人
*
Like a nest, my window holds
orioles in the willow; white egrets;
the ridge’s thousand-autumn snow –
boats from Wu sailing over the sill.
after Du Fu
兩個黃鸝鳴翠柳
一行白鷺上青天
窗含西嶺千秋雪
門泊東吳萬里船
*
Autumn's silver candlelight.
The painted screen grows cold.
Her silk fan brushes fireflies.
None can cross the river of stars.
after Du Mu
銀燭秋光冷畫屏
輕羅小扇撲流螢
天階夜色涼如水
坐看牽牛織女星
*
Amidst the bamboo
I, the guqin's song,
become a night bird –
the moon seeks me out.
after Wang Wei
獨坐幽篁裡
彈琴復長嘯
深林人不知
明月來相照
*
Thousands slaughtered
under the same moon –
no northern horse
crosses Yinshan.
after Wang Changling
秦時明月漢時關
萬里長征人未還
但使龍城飛將在
不教胡馬度陰山
*
Night rain in the mountains
swells the autumn pools –
if we ever light our candle again
I will sing to you of night rain.
after Li Shangyin
君問歸期未有期
巴山夜雨漲秋池
何當共剪西窗燭
卻話巴山夜雨時
*
Uneasy, I take a walk.
Sunset seems to last forever.
What can it have to fear?
My God, it is already night.
after Li Shangyin
向晚意不適
驅車登古原
夕陽無限好
只是近黃昏
*
Non-mountain. Mist –
the morning's voice.
A silence of light.
Footprints in moss.
after Wang Wei
空山不見人
但聞人語響
返景入深林
復照青苔上
