Cold sheet,withered lotus flowers,
i lightly put off my shirt,
lonely step in the boat.
Who will send the love letters to me from the cloud?
When the wild geese return,
only moon rises from the Western Attic.
Flowers will fade,waters will flow,
we have the one yearning but weeps at two places.
Baby,could you tell me
how i should get rid of this sweetest love?
I put the pain of yearning down for a while,
but it spreads in my heart again like it never will be healed.
红藕香残玉簟秋。
轻解罗裳，独上兰舟。
云中谁寄锦书来，雁字回时，月满西楼。
花自飘零水自流。
一种相思，两处闲愁。
此情无计可消除，才下眉头，却上心头。
This lyric:depicts the loneliness of the poetess longing for messages from her husband who was far away.
Qing-zhao this ci was written in 1101, hen she had just married. Mingcheng was traveling quite far away and she is reputed to have sent him this poem painted on a silk handkerchief, a familiar gesture of special intimacy in those days. The ci is sometimes called, in fact, "Sorrow for Departure." It is remarkable for its openness and directness in expressing a lady's loneliness for her husband, a role somewhat precluded by custom in medieval,feudal China.
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.