元稹　遣悲怀三首·之一 AN ELEGY I
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
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.

元稹　遣悲怀三首·之二 AN ElEGY II
昔日戏言身後事
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
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.

元稹　遣悲怀三首·之三 AN ELEGY III
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 [上“穴”下“目”] 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
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.

白居易　 TO MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS ADRIFT
IN TROUBLED TIMES THIS POEM OF THE MOON
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，於潜七兄，
乌江十五兄，兼示符离及下 [圭阝] 弟妹。 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.
时难年荒世业空
弟兄羁旅各西东
田园寥落干戈後
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
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.

李商隐　锦瑟 THE INLAID HARP
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
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.

李商隐　无题 TO ONE UNNAMED
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
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.

李商隐　隋宫 THE PALACE OF THE SUI EMPEROR
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
於今腐草无萤火
终古垂杨有暮鸦
地下若逢陈後主
岂宜重问後庭花
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?

李商隐　无题二首·之一 TO ONE UNNAMED I
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
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.

李商隐　无题二首·之二 TO ONE UNNAMED II
飒飒东风细雨来
芙蓉塘外有轻雷
金蟾啮锁烧香入
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
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?

李商隐　筹笔驿 IN THE CAMP OF THE SKETCHING BRUSH
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
梁父吟成恨有馀
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

李商隐　无题 TO ONE UNNAMED III
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
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!

李商隐　春雨 SPRING RAIN
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 [日宛] 晚
残宵犹得梦依稀
玉 [王当] 缄札何由达
万里云罗一雁飞
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.

李商隐　无题二首·之一 TO ONE UNNAMED IV
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
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.

李商隐　无题二首·之二 TO ONE UNNAMED V
重帷深下莫愁堂
卧後清宵细细长
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
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!

温庭筠　利洲南渡 NEAR THE LIZHOU FERRY
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
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?

温庭筠　苏武庙 THE TEMPLE OF SU WU
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
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.

薛逢　宫词 A PALACE POEM
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
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.

秦韬玉　贫女 A POOR GIRL
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
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.

沈全期　古意呈补阙乔知之 BEYOND SEEING
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
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.