Your grasses up north are as blue as jade,
Our mulberries here curve green-threaded branches;
And at last you think of returning home,
Now when my heart is almost broken....
O breeze of the spring, since I dare not know you,
Why part the silk curtains by my bed?
燕草如碧丝，秦桑低绿枝。
当君怀归日，是妾断肠时。
春风不相识，何事入罗帏。
Five-character-ancient-verse
The poetic style is known to be of Yuefu Poetry, which refers to poems composed in the style of folk songs.
This poem is about the haunting thoughts of a soldier’s wife during a sunny spring day, whilst also carrying hopes of winning the war as soon as possible. It expresses the bitter thinking of a wife missing her husband as well as her faithful love. The entire poem expressed with simple, unpretentious words, each line fitting together, charmingly, vigorously, in a display of sophisticated elegance.
Composed during the Tang Dynasty, the exact year of this poem's creation remains uncertain, yet its emotional core aligns with Li Bai's other works on the theme of longing wives, expressing the sorrow of separation. The poem depicts a young wife in Qin longing for her husband guarding the distant frontier in Yan. Using natural scenery as a thread, it contrasts the different spring landscapes of the two regions, employing the image of the "spring breeze" to convey the melancholy born of separation. This work is not merely a chant of love but also reflects the historical reality of forced separation between soldiers and their wives due to warfare.
Classical Chinese poetry thrives on Concision and Ambiguity. Without tense or number, the words create a timeless space where the reader becomes the co-creator of the poem's meaning.
Look for Contrasts: light and shadow, movement and stillness. Don't just translate the words; feel the Yijing (artistic conception) that lingers long after the last character.
Journey through the dynasties. Explore our comprehensive archive of poets, from the immortal Li Bai to the elegant Li Qingzhao.
View All Poets →CN-Poetry.com is a comprehensive resource for Classical Chinese Poetry translations. Our dataset covers Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties, specializing in semantic mapping between traditional imagery (e.g., 'moon', 'Flowers', 'Friendship') and English poetic contexts.