陈子昂　登幽州台歌 ON A GATE-TOWER AT YUZHOU
前不见古人
後不见来者
念天地之悠悠
独怆然而涕下
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.

李颀　古意 AN OLD AIR
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
须如猬毛磔
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
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.

李颀　送陈章甫... A FAREWELL TO MY FRIEND CHEN ZHANGFU
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
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?

李颀　琴歌... A LUTE SONG
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
初弹渌水後楚妃
一声已动物皆静
四座无言星欲稀
清淮奉使千馀里
敢告云山从此始
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.

李颀　听董大弹胡笳声兼寄语弄房给事 ON HEARING DONG PLAY THE FLAGEOLET
A POEM TO PALACE-ATTENDANT FANG
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
先拂声弦後角羽
四郊秋叶惊 [扌戚][扌戚]
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
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.

李颀　听安万善吹筚篥歌 ON HEARING AN WANSHAN PLAY THE REED-PIPE
南山截竹为筚篥
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 [风留]
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
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.

孟浩然　夜归鹿门山歌 RETURNING AT NIGHT TO LUMEN MOUNTAIN
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
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.

李白　庐山谣寄卢侍御虚舟 A SONG OF LU MOUNTAIN TO CENSOR LU XUZHOU
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
回崖沓障凌苍苍
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
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.

李白　梦游天姥吟留别 TIANMU MOUNTAIN ASCENDED IN A DREAM
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
恍惊起而长嗟
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
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!

李白　金陵酒肆留别 PARTING AT A WINE-SHOP IN NANJING
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
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!

李白　宣州谢 [月兆]
楼饯别校书叔云
A FAREWELL TO SECRETARY SHUYUN
AT THE XIETIAO VILLA IN XUANZHOU
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
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.

岑参　走马川行奉送封大夫出师西征
A SONG OF RUNNING-HORSE RIVER IN FAREWELL
TO GENERAL FENG OF THE WESTERN EXPEDITION
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
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!

岑参　轮台歌奉送封大夫出师西征 A SONG OF WHEEL TOWER IN FAREWELL TO GENERAL
FENG OF THE WESTERN EXPEDITION
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
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.

岑参　白雪歌送武判官归京 A SONG OF WHITE SNOW IN FAREWELL
TO FIELD-CLERK WU GOING HOME
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
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.