some posts back, i had started to offer a few more chinese love poems when i got interrupted by an angel … remember?

well, today you can finally read those poems. this time, i’ll just tease you with incomplete poems – go to the original sites to enjoy the full versions.

a song of changgan
by li bai
my hair had hardly covered my forehead.
i was picking flowers, paying by my door,
when you, my lover, on a bamboo horse,
came trotting in circles and throwing green plums.
we lived near together on a lane in ch’ang-kan,
both of us young and happy-hearted.
…at fourteen i became your wife,
so bashful that i dared not smile,
and i lowered my head toward a dark corner
and would not turn to your thousand calls;
but at fifteen i straightened my brows and laughed,
learning that no dust could ever seal our love

a dream at night
by mei yao ch’en
in broad daylight i dream i
am with her. at night i dream
she is still at my side. she
carries her kit of colored
threads. i see her image bent
over her bag of silks. she
mends and alters my clothes and
worries for fear i might look
worn and ragged.

chance
by xu zhimo
i am a cloud in the sky,
a chance shadow on the wave of your heart.
don’t be surprised,
or too elated;
in an instant i shall vanish without trace.

(image by mckaysavage)