#tang poetry

[scarletlich]

《苦昼短》 唐 · 李贺

飞光，飞光，劝尔一杯酒。

吾不识青天高黄地厚，唯见月寒日暖，来煎人寿。

食熊则肥，食蛙则瘦。

神君何在，太一安有？

天东有若木，下置衔烛龙。

吾将斩龙足，嚼龙肉，使之朝不得回，夜不得伏。

自然老者不死，少者不哭。

何为服黄金，吞白玉？

谁似任公子，云中骑碧驴。

刘彻茂陵多滞骨，嬴政梓棺费鲍鱼。

(punctuation added by me)

"Short Bitter Days" Tang Dynasty, Li He

Oh fleeting time, may you drink this cup of wine. I do not know how high the blue sky, nor how thick the yellow earth, I only see the cold of the moon and warmth of the sun (the days and seasons passing), wearing away our lifetimes.

Those who eat bear grow fat, those who eat frogs become thin.

Where are the gods, is there truly a heavenly emperor?

In the east of the sky there is a celestial arbor*, beneath it the zhulong**.

(*) borrowing this translation from hsr because hsr chinese also sometimes uses 若木 to refer to the 建木 as both terms refer to a massive mythical tree

(**) mythical dragon that controls the day night cycle

I shall cleave the dragon's feet, and eat the dragon's flesh, so it cannot fly during the day nor rest at night.

Thus the old will not die, and the young will not weep.

What use is there in eating yellow gold or swallowing white jade?

Who can be like Master Ren, riding through the clouds on a white/green* donkey? (*) there exists some debate on if this is supposed to be white or green in this line

Liu Che's* grave at Maoling is full of withered bones, Ying Zheng's** catalpa coffin wasted many abalone.

(*) Liu Che was the 7th emperor of the Han Dynasty, living from 156 to 87 BCE, and his gravesite is called Maoling. He was interested in seeking immortality.

(**) Ying Zheng was the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, and really the first emperor in Chinese history, responsible for uniting all the warring states and establishing the imperial system that would last for over two millennia after his life from 259 to 210 BCE. He died while touring the nation, suspected foul play by one of his sons trying to usurp the throne, and to keep his death hidden while they were returning to the capital his coffin (emperor's coffins were traditionally made of catalpa wood) was covered in abalone to hide the stench of his slowly rotting corpse.

Another poem I had previously read but didn't understand fully. Li He wrote this poem during the Yuanhe era (806-820 CE) of the Tang Dynasty's Xianzong Emperor Li Chun's rule. At the time Li Chun was extremely obsessed with obtaining immortality himself, to the point where he even famously appointed an alchemist as a provincial governor. Naturally whatever the emperor is interested in, the entire court is interested in in order to gain his favor. Knowing this historical background it's very clear what Li He was criticizing.

I also think this poem is a good concrete example of the Chinese attitude towards divinity. I believe @999-roses at one point showed a xhs post in which a Chinese user was asking why Westerners didn't have any stories about fighting their gods, whereas Chinese mythology is full of examples of characters fighting against the highest gods, most famously the three "rebels of heaven" Sun Wukong (the Monkey King), Nezha, and Yang Jian (Er Lang Shen). Many coastal regions had temples to the dragon kings who were believed to control the rain, however during long droughts people in some regions have a tradition of taking the dragon king's statue out of the temple and exposing it to the harsh sunlight, and even whipping it to give the offending gods a taste of the pain they inflict on the people by denying them rain. In this poem Li He is proclaiming he will slay and eat the dragon that controls the day night cycle (and by extension the normal passage of time) and bring immortality to all.

[gennsoup]

We tell ourselves all love is foolishness-- And still disappointment is a lucid madness.

Li Shangyin, Untitled Poems

[grand-theft-carbohydrates]

Hi guys, I went ahead an translated one of Li Bai’s poems <3. Now, translations are an imperfect art and its hard to capture the beauty of the original text, so please forgive me for any inaccuracies that might occur! >u< *

Life it never die

Moon is my favourite guy

Wine, im wanting more

Tell An Lushan stop the war

Zoom hear the apes go whoop

By the river feel the grove

Struck by longing in the night

EVERYBODY FREE-VERSE!

[jankisinja]

To my Retired Friend Wei, by Du Fu (712-770)

Section 1 Poem 9 of 300 Tang Poems

Translated by Witter Bunner (1881-1968) and Kiang Kang-hu (1883-1954)

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?

人生不相見，動如參與商。

今夕復何夕，共此��燭光。

少壯能幾時，鬢發各已蒼。

訪舊半為鬼，驚呼熱中腸。

焉知二十載，重上君子堂。

昔別君未婚，兒女忽成行。

怡然敬父執，問我來何方。

問答乃未已，驅兒羅酒漿。

夜雨翦春韭，新炊間黃粱。

主稱會面難，一舉累十覲。

十覷亦不醉，感子故意長。

明日隔山岳，世事兩茫茫。

[yilinwriter]

I made a Classical Chinese Poetry Bingo card to help people recognize the common tropes and motifs.🤣

These show up frequently in the modern poetry I translate as well.

Do you recognize anything from your readings or from pop culture? Tag yourself. I'm "feeling sad on a boat" lol

[maggiecheungs]

answer based on personal preference! in the tags please tell me why, and also if you've read their work in the original or in translation :)

[creatediana]

“Staying in the Mountains in Summer” by Chinese poet Yu Xuanji (844–871), one of the most legendary female poets of the Tang dynasty

[frequentpondcrosser]

No one on the empty mountain

And yet I hear faint voices.

Dusk’s low rays penetrate the deep woods

And play upon the mossy ground.

[these-summer-nights-in-december]

Wang Wei | A Green Stream

[ordinaryeternalmachinery]

Just let me go back to my place in town; I swear I'll never even look at landscapes painted on screens.

ANOTHER POEM FOR MINISTER WU ON ARRIVING AT THE BORDERLANDS by xue tao

[scarletlich]

题李凝幽居 On Li Ning's Seclusive Residence 唐 贾岛 by Tang poet Jia Dao

闲居少邻并，草径入荒园。This carefree residence has few neighbors, a grassy path leads to an overgrown garden.

鸟宿池边树，僧敲月下门。Birds freely roost upon trees by the pond, in the moonlight a monk knocks upon the door.

过桥分野色，移石动云根。Crossing the bridge one sees the scene of wilderness, amidst drifting clouds the mountains themselves seem to move.

暂去还来此，幽期不负言。Although [I] must leave this place I will return, to live together in seclusion as promised.

[gennsoup]

overhead a moon and wilderness of stars here and there clouds and mist this universe is enormous my road goes on and on.

Du Fu, Leaving Qinzhou

[kohamarsonist]

aw yeah the pages of chinese literature are soaked in alcohol

So much so that 杜甫 Du Fu immortalised even 李白 Li Bai as a Tang dynasty literary boozer in his 《飲中八仙》 Yǐnzhōng bāxiān / "Song of the Eight Immortals of the Wine-Cup". It is amazing how literally most of the grandesque poems and calligraphy of that time were written when the dudes were wasted. Du Fu himself was also a poetry-spouting drunk and as much as I have the tendency to slander his name by calling him an absolute loser, the guy could write. But when you only look at his poetry and only his poetry for a whooole semester, track his life through the vast historical upheaval in the Tang Dynasty and the approx. 1500 poems he wrote, he becomes a bit too close to you and I just can't respect him for the Towering Literary Figure that he is....

One of Zhang Xu’s calligraphy works Zhang Xu (traditional Chinese: 張旭; simplified Chinese: 张旭; pinyin: Zhāng Xù, fl. 8th century), courtesy name: Bogao (伯高), was a Chinese calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty.

A native of Suzhou, he became an official during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. Zhang was known as one of the Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup. Legend has it that whenever he was drunk, he would use his hair as brush to perform his art, and upon his waking up, he would be amazed by the quality of those works but failed to produce them again in his sober state.

Though more well known for his explosive cursive script, he excelled in the regular script. Anecdotes go that he grasped the essence of cursive writing by observing some porters fight for their way with the guard of honor of some princess, and by watching the solo performance of a famous sword-dancer. He was known as 草聖 (the Divine Grassist) for his great skill in the grass scipt.

[jankisinja]

冬至，白居易

邯郸驿里逢冬至

抱膝灯前影伴身

想得家中夜深坐

还应说着远行人

Winter Solstice, Bai Juyi (804)

At Handan courier station on winter solstice night.

Beside a lamp, hugging my knees, my shadow my company.

Thinking of my family at home sitting up late.

At this very moment, talking about me.

[bytebun]

OH HIGH MOUNTAIN, HOW I LONG TO REACH YOU BREATHING YOUR SWEETNESS EVEN HERE!

[beifongkendo]

Seven-character Buddhist scroll, by Kogetsu Sogan (1574-1643). After a poem by Tang-dynasty poet Liu Shang (12th century).

The original poem translates as ‘Since you left Mount Shunzan, I have no friend to play games with.’ In the original language this reflected a sense of loss, poignancy, but also acceptance.