The North Wind
- Poetry of Li Bai (Li Po)

烛龙栖寒门，光曜犹旦开。

日月照之何不及此？惟有北风号怒天上来。

燕山雪花大如席，片片吹落轩辕台。

幽州思妇十二月，停歌罢笑双蛾摧。

倚门望行人，念君长城苦寒良可哀。

别时提剑救边去，遗此虎文金鞞靫。

中有一双白羽箭，蜘蛛结网生尘埃。

箭空在，人今战死不复回。

不忍见此物，焚之已成灰。

黄河捧土尚可塞，北风雨雪恨难裁。

The candle-holding Dragon curls o'er Polar Gate 

Only at dawn his flickering light will radiate.

Nor sun nor moon will shine there far and nigh,

Only the howling northern wind blows down from the sky.

The snowflakes from north mountains,big as pillows white,

Fall flake on flake upon Yellow Emperor's Height 

The twelfth moon sees the wife in lonely bower sit,

She will nor sing nor smile,with eyebrows tightly knit.

She leans against the door and looks at passers-by,

Thinking of her husband who with cold might shiver 

Beyond the Great Wall and sigh.

When he started,his sword in hand,

To save the borderland.

He left her two white-feathered arrows in a golden quiver.

The pair of arrows mid cobwebs and dust remain.

Her lord who fell in battle won't come back again.

How could she bear to see the tiger-striped quiver?

She tries to burn it into ashes.

Building a dam,we may stop the flow of Yellow River.

How could the northern wind assuage her grief that gashes!