Poems

花謝花飛飛滿天

Flowers wither and fly, filling the sky.

紅消香斷有誰憐

The red fades and the fragrance ends — who pities them?

游絲軟系飄春榭

Soft drifting gossamer threads cling about the spring pavilion.

落絮輕沾撲繡簾

Light falling catkins brush and strike the embroidered curtain.

閨中女兒惜春暮

The maiden within the chamber cherishes the end of spring.

愁緒滿懷無釋處

Her bosom is full of sorrow, with nowhere to release it.

手把花鋤出繡閨

She takes a flower hoe in hand and leaves her chamber.

忍踏落花來復去

She cannot bear to tread on fallen flowers coming and going.

柳絲榆莢自芳菲

Willow threads and elm pods flourish on their own.

不管桃飄與李飛

They do not care whether peach and plum blossoms drift away.

桃李明年能再發

Peach and plum trees can bloom again next year.

明年閨中知有誰

But next year, who will remain in this chamber?

三月香巢已壘成

By the third month, the fragrant nest has already been built.

梁間燕子太無情

The swallows between the beams are heartless.

明年花發雖可啄

Next year when flowers bloom, they may peck at them again.

卻不道人去梁空巢也傾

But they do not consider that when the person is gone, the beam will be empty and the nest collapse.

一年三百六十日

In a year of three hundred sixty days,

風刀霜劍嚴相逼

Wind like knives and frost like swords press harshly.

明媚鮮妍能幾時

How long can brightness and beauty last?

一朝飄泊難尋覓

Once scattered and adrift, they are hard to find again.

花開易見落難尋

It is easy to see flowers bloom, but hard to find them once fallen.

階前悶殺葬花人

Before the steps, it stifles the one who buries the flowers.

獨倚花鋤淚暗灑

Alone, leaning on her hoe, she secretly sheds tears.

灑上空枝見血痕

They fall on bare branches like traces of blood.

杜鵑無語正黃昏

The cuckoo is silent at dusk.

荷鋤歸去掩重門

Carrying her hoe, she returns and shuts the heavy door.

青燈照壁人初睡

A dim lamp lights the wall as she first falls asleep.

冷雨敲窗被未溫

Cold rain taps the window; the quilt is not yet warm.

怪奴底事倍傷神

Why am I so especially wounded in spirit?

半為憐春半惱春

Half from cherishing spring, half from resenting it.

憐春忽至惱忽去

Spring comes suddenly to be cherished and suddenly departs to be resented.

至又無言去不聞

It comes without speaking and goes unheard.

昨宵庭外悲歌發

Last night beyond the courtyard a sorrowful song arose.

知是花魂與鳥魂

Was it the souls of flowers and birds?

花魂鳥魂總難留

The souls of flowers and birds are always hard to keep.

鳥自無言花自羞

Birds are silent; flowers are shy.

願奴脅下生雙翼

I wish that beneath my ribs would grow a pair of wings.

隨花飛到天盡頭

So I could follow the flowers flying to the end of the sky.

天盡頭

The end of the sky—

何處有香丘

Where is there a fragrant mound?

未若錦囊收艷骨

Better to gather the lovely remains in a brocade pouch,

一抔淨土掩風流

And cover them with a handful of clean earth.

質本潔來還潔去

What is pure by nature comes pure and returns pure.

強於污淖陷渠溝

Better than sinking into filthy mud and ditches.

爾今死去儂收葬

If you die now, I will gather and bury you.

未卜儂身何日喪

But I cannot foresee the day of my own death.

儂今葬花人笑痴

Now as I bury flowers, people laugh at me as foolish.

他年葬儂知是誰

In future years, do I know who will bury me?

試看春殘花漸落

Look and see as spring wanes and flowers gradually fall.

便是紅顏老死時

That is the time when beauty grows old and dies.

一朝春盡紅顏老

One day when spring ends, beauty grows old.

花落人亡兩不知

Flowers fall and people perish — neither knows the other.