Qiu Wei
I climbed up 30 li to reach the grass cottage.
There were no servants at the front gate.
Inside, there was only a table and some tea things.
He hadn't taken his carriage,
so he had probably gone fishing on the autumn river.
One coming and one going, we had missed each other.
I hesitated by the gate, for I greatly respected him.
The color of the young grass amid the rain, the sound of late wind at the window
matched my lonely mood, and stirred my spirits.
Although we had not been able to meet as guest and host,
I had clearly realized the truth.
My pleasure thoroughly satisfied, I descended the mountain.
What need was there to wait for him?
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4 comments:
i love this. did you write it? or is it a piece you know?
and your blog title is funny. it reminds me of the old Frank Zappa song "Broken Hearts are for A--holes."
But the song title says the whole word. I didn't want to be offensive in your journal. I'm offensive in mine, but that's a whole notha story. :)
Oh no, I can't take credit for writing this. It's a Tang Dynasty Chinese poem, written by Qiu Wei. The book I have doesn't have any dates for him, but the Tang Dynasty lasted from 618-907 CE.
I translated it. I used to just post the originals because I'm never very happy with my translations and the original texts are so awesome, but not many people who read my blog read Chinese, or if they do, they don't study classical Chinese.
So my translations are primarily for introducing non Chinese nerd readers to stuff they haven't read before. Or at least give an example of what I babble about sometimes.
Anyways, I'm glad you like it.
Be as profane as you like. I swear quite frequently on here. Love Songs (Are For Losers) is the title of a Crowns on 45 song. I wonder if the title was inspired by the Frank Zappa song. Hmm...
cool. now i know. :)
yeah...i enjoyed the poem.
me too.
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