賀知章　回鄉偶書 COMING HOME
少小離家老大回
鄉音無改鬢毛衰
兒童相見不相識
笑問客從何處來
I left home young. I return old;
Speaking as then, but with hair grown thin;
And my children, meeting me, do not know me.
They smile and say: "Stranger, where do you come from?"

張旭　桃花溪 PEACH-BLOSSOM RIVER
隱隱飛橋隔野煙
石磯西畔問漁船
桃花盡日隨流水
洞在清溪何處邊
A bridge flies away through a wild mist,
Yet here are the rocks and the fisherman's boat.
Oh, if only this river of floating peach-petals
Might lead me at last to the mythical cave!

王維　九月九日憶山東兄弟 ON THE MOUNTAIN HOLIDAY
THINKING OF MY BROTHERS IN SHANDONG
獨在異鄉為異客
每逢佳節倍思親
遙知兄弟登高處
遍插茱萸少一人
All alone in a foreign land,
I am twice as homesick on this day
When brothers carry dogwood up the mountain,
Each of them a branch-and my branch missing.

王昌齡　
芙蓉樓送辛漸 AT HIBISCUS INN
PARTING WITH XIN JIAN
寒雨連江夜入吳
平明送客楚山孤
洛陽親友如相問
一片冰心在玉壺
With this cold night-rain hiding the river, you have come into Wu.
In the level dawn, all alone, you will be starting for the mountains of Chu.
Answer, if they ask of me at Loyang:
"One-hearted as ice in a crystal vase."

王昌齡　閨怨 IN HER QUIET WINDOW
閨中少婦不知愁
春日凝妝上翠樓
忽見陌頭楊柳色
悔教夫婿覓封侯
Too young to have learned what sorrow means,
Attired for spring, she climbs to her high chamber....
The new green of the street-willows is wounding her heart --
Just for a title she sent him to war.

王昌齡　春宮曲 A SONG OF THE SPRING PALACE
昨夜風開露井桃
未央前殿月輪高
平陽歌舞新承寵
簾外春寒賜錦袍
Last night, while a gust blew peach-petals open
And the moon shone high on the Palace Beyond Time,
The Emperor gave Pingyang, for her dancing,
Brocades against the cold spring-wind.

王翰　涼州詞 A SONG OF LIANGZHOU
葡萄美酒夜光杯
欲飲琵琶馬上催
醉臥沙場君莫笑
古來征戰幾人回
They sing, they drain their cups of jade,
They strum on horseback their guitars.
...Why laugh when they fall asleep drunk on the sand ? --
How many soldiers ever come home?

李白　送孟浩然之廣陵 A FAREWELL TO MENG HAORAN
ON HIS WAY TO YANGZHOU
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
You have left me behind, old friend, at the Yellow Crane Terrace,
On your way to visit Yangzhou in the misty month of flowers;
Your sail, a single shadow, becomes one with the blue sky,
Till now I see only the river, on its way to heaven.

李白　下江陵 THROUGH THE YANGZI GORGES
朝辭白帝彩云間
千里江陵一日還
兩岸猿聲啼不住
輕舟已過萬重山
From the walls of Baidi high in the coloured dawn
To Jiangling by night-fall is three hundred miles,
Yet monkeys are still calling on both banks behind me
To my boat these ten thousand mountains away.

岑參　逢入京使 ON MEETING A MESSENGER TO THE CAPITAL
故園東望路漫漫
雙袖龍鐘淚不干
馬上相逢無紙筆
憑君傳語報平安
It's a long way home, a long way east.
I am old and my sleeve is wet with tears.
We meet on horseback. I have no means of writing.
Tell them three words: "He is safe."

杜甫　江南逢李龜年 ON MEETING LI GUINIAN DOWN THE RIVER
岐王宅里尋常見
崔九堂前幾度聞
正是江南好風景
落花時節又逢君
I met you often when you were visiting princes
And when you were playing in noblemen's halls.
...Spring passes.... Far down the river now,
I find you alone under falling petals.

韋應物　滁州西澗 AT CHUZHOU ON THE WESTERN STREAM
獨憐幽草澗邊生
上有黃鸝深樹鳴
春潮帶雨晚來急
野渡無人舟自橫
Where tender grasses rim the stream
And deep boughs trill with mango-birds,
On the spring flood of last night's rain
The ferry-boat moves as though someone were poling.

張繼　楓橋夜泊 A NIGHT-MOORING NEAR MAPLE BRIDGE
月落烏啼霜滿天
江楓漁火對愁眠
姑蘇城外寒山寺
夜半鐘聲到客船
While I watch the moon go down, a crow caws through the frost;
Under the shadows of maple-trees a fisherman moves with his torch;
And I hear, from beyond Suzhou, from the temple on Cold Mountain,
Ringing for me, here in my boat, the midnight bell.

韓觕　寒食 AFTER THE DAY OF NO FIRE
春城無處不飛花
寒食東風御柳斜
日暮漢宮傳蠟燭
輕煙散入五侯家
Petals of spring fly all through the city
From the wind in the willows of the Imperial River.
And at dusk, from the palace, candles are given out
To light first the mansions of the Five Great Lords.

劉方平　月夜 A MOONLIGHT NIGHT
更深月色半人家
北斗闌干南斗斜
今夜偏知春氣暖
蟲聲新透綠窗紗
When the moon has coloured half the house,
With the North Star at its height and the South Star setting,
I can fed the first motions of the warm air of spring
In the singing of an insect at my green-silk window.

劉方平　春怨 SPRING HEART-BREAK
紗窗日落漸黃昏
金屋無人見淚痕
寂寞空庭春欲晚
梨花滿地不開門
With twilight passing her silken window,
She weeps alone in her chamber of gold
For spring is departing from a desolate garden,
And a drift of pear-petals is closing a door.

柳中庸　征人怨 A TROOPER'S BURDEN
歲歲金河復玉關
朝朝馬策與刀環
三春白雪歸青冢
萬里黃河繞黑山
For years, to guard the Jade Pass and the River of Gold,
With our hands on our horse-whips and our swordhilts,
We have watched the green graves change to snow
And the Yellow Stream ring the Black Mountain forever.

顧況　宮詞 A PALACE POEM
玉樓天半起笙歌
風送宮嬪笑語和
月殿影開聞夜漏
水晶簾卷近秋河
High above, from a jade chamber, songs float half-way to heaven,
The palace-girls' gay voices are mingled with the wind --
But now they are still, and you hear a water-clock drip in the Court of the Moon....
They have opened the curtain wide, they are facing the River of Stars.

李益　夜上受降城聞笛 ON HEARING A FLUTE AT NIGHT
FROM THE WALL OF SHOUXIANG
回樂峰前沙似雪
受降城外月如霜
不知何處吹蘆管
一夜征人盡望鄉
The sand below the border-mountain lies like snow,
And the moon like frost beyond the city-wall,
And someone somewhere, playing a flute,
Has made the soldiers homesick all night long.

劉禹錫　烏衣巷 BLACKTAIL ROW
朱雀橋邊野草花
烏衣巷口夕陽斜
舊時王謝堂前燕
飛入尋常百姓家
Grass has run wild now by the Bridge of Red-Birds;
And swallows' wings, at sunset, in Blacktail Row
Where once they visited great homes,
Dip among doorways of the poor.

劉禹錫　春詞 A SPRING SONG
新妝宜面下朱樓
深鎖春光一院愁
行到中庭數花朵
蜻蜓飛上玉搔頭
In gala robes she comes down from her chamber
Into her courtyard, enclosure of spring....
When she tries from the centre to count the flowers,
On her hairpin of jade a dragon-fly poises.