Li Yu

The Wind Returns; My Little Courtyard is Green and Overgrown (The Beautiful Lady Yu) ( 虞美人·风回小院庭芜绿 )

By Li Yu

The wind returns; my little courtyard is green and overgrown,

The willows seem to have grown again this spring.

I lean for a long time on the railings; alone, without a word,

The sound of bamboo and the new moon are just like in days gone by.

The playing and singing have not yet ceased; the wine cups remain,

The ice on top of the pool begins to melt.

Bright candles and a faint fragrance are deep in the painted hall,

It's hard to think I must allow my temples all to turn white.

The East Wind Blows Over the Water (The Lover's Return) ( 阮郎归·呈郑王十二弟 )

By Li Yu

The east wind blows over the water, the sun sits by the hill,

Though spring has come, the idleness persists.

Fallen blossom is scattered amid wine and tinkling pendants by the rail,

She listens to playing and singing in a drunken daze.

The pendants are now silent, her evening wear undone,

For what man's sake is she to dress her hair?

Her fair appearance too will pass as time slips by,

At dusk, she leans alone upon the railing.

My Idle Dreams Roam Far (Gazing at the South) ( 望江南·闲梦远 )

By Li Yu

My idle dreams roam far,

To the southern land where spring is fragrant.

Wind and strings play on a boat on the river's clear surface,

The city is full of catkins flying like light dust.

People are occupied admiring the flowers.

My idle dreams roam far,

To the southern land where autumn is clear.

For a thousand li over rivers and hills cold colours stretch far,

Deep in flowering reeds, a solitary boat is moored.

Beneath the bright moon, a flute plays in the tower.

Last Night the Wind and Rain Together Blew (Crows Crying at Night) ( 乌夜啼·昨夜风兼雨 )

Li Yu's Wu Ye Ti (乌夜啼) begins with a sound we all know: Zuo ye feng jian yu, lian wei sa sa qiu sheng. (昨夜风兼雨，帘…

Last night the wind and rain together blew,

The wall-curtains rustled in their autumn song.

The candle died, the water-clock was exhausted,

I rose and sat, but could not be at peace.

Man's affairs are like the flow of floodwater,

A life is just like floating in a dream.

I should more often go drunken through the country,

For otherwise I could not bear to live.

How Many Tears (Gazing at the South) ( 望江南(其二) )

By Li Yu

How many tears

Criss-cross your cheeks and run across your face!

Don't try to speak when worry makes you weep,

Nor play the flute when it will bring your tears,

Or surely then your heart will break.

Beneath the Moon, Before the Steps (Gratitude for New Bounties) ( 谢新恩·樱花落尽阶前月 )

By Li Yu

Beneath the moon, before the steps, all cherry blossom has fallen,

Enwreathed in smoke, she looks sorrowful lying in bed.

She feels the same regret today as one long year ago.

Both braids like cloud in disarray, her face is wan and sallow,

The crimson corset wet from wiping tears.

But what's the reason why she suffers so?

She lies in a drunken dream before the window.

A Heavenly Woman's Imprisoned in the Palace (Buddhist Dancers) ( 菩萨蛮·蓬莱院闭天台女 )

By Li Yu

A heavenly woman's imprisoned in the palace at Penglai Hill,

All are silent as she sleeps by day in the painted hall.

Her glossy hair is spread like cloud on the pillow,

Her embroidered clothes bear a wondrous fragrance.

I secretly come and slide the pearl lock back,

She's startled from her dream behind the silver screen.

Her smiling face is overflowing with bliss,

We gaze at each other with unbounded love.

How Can a Man Escape Life's Sorrow and Regret? (Song of Ziye) ( 子夜歌·人生愁恨何能免 )

By Li Yu

How many one be spared the sorrow and regret of human life?

Why am I alone so overwhelmed, what end to my grief?

To my former kingdom I return in dreams again,

And awaken to find my tears already brimming.

With whom did I climb the high towers then?

How often I remember how we gazed into the clear autumn.

These things past are already drained and dead,

As though they were moments from within a single dream.

Tune: "Pure Serene Music" ( 清平乐·别来春半 )

By Li Yu

Spring has half gone since we two parted;

I can see nothing now but broken-hearted.

Plum blossoms fall below the steps like whirling snow;

They cover me still though brushed off a while ago.

No message comes from the wild geese's song;

In dreams you cannot come back for the road is long.

The grief of separation like spring grass

Grows each day you're farther away, alas!

The mouth of the beauty ( 一斛珠 )

By Li Yu

In the morning,put on a light make-up,

pink lips and blue eyes,am i sexy?

Stick my tongue out,come to kiss me.

A song in the cherry trees,

baby,catch me tight if you want me to be your goddess.

Thin shirt on my body,so cold i feel.

grape wine stains the sheet,i don't care.

Leaning on the boudoir like a frail maiden,

spitting the litchis on your face smilingly,

what are you waiting?Come to possess me with your incredible love.

Moonshiny night ( 菩萨蛮·花明月暗笼轻雾 )

In the incense,little flowers grow.

it's a good time to go to a tryst with you.

lightly i sneak into your bedroom like moonshine.

silk shoes i carry,kiss me tenderly in this night.

Cuddle up to you in the Southern boudoir,

spoiling me like i'm the queen of this world.

So wishful to be your mistress,baby,touch me,

groan like a kitten,my heart only fires for you.

Song of Crush That Enemy Line ( 破阵子 )

Li Yu (937-978)was the last ruler of the Southern Tang.In 975,his capital fell and he himself was taken captive.In his ca…

E’er since for forty years, this land: my home, my country;

A realm of a thousand miles of a mountained, rivered terrain.

Grand palatial towers and chambers, rise high to meet the skies;

Jade green leaves on boughs and branches, vines in a misty veil.

When did I know of battle shields and blades?

Now that I’m made a subject, a lord in name, a captive;   

Thinned waist, hoary temples: O how I’m wasting away!

And worst at the shrine on parting day, hurried-worried despite,

Court musicians still remained, just parting songs were played.

O tears I rolled before the palace maids.

Lady Yu, the Royal Beauty ( 虞美人·春花秋月何时了 )

Li Yu's Yu Mei Ren (虞美人)—a lyric (ci) composed in the final years of the poet's captivity under the Song dynasty, and…

Spring flowers and autumn moon, O when will all these end?

How much of my past I comprehend?

Last night, to my loft once more, the vernal east wind came;

In moonlight, I could not bear to look back towards my homeland rid of my name.

Jade steps and carved railings may still as ever be there,

Though changed are the faces fair.

O how great, how grave, I ask, can my woe and sorrow be?

Just like the River’s swelling spring-tide waters rolling east to the sea.

Translated by Andrew W.F. Wong (Huang Hongfa)

Alone, in silence, up the west tower I go ( 相见欢·无言独上西楼 )

Li Yu’s Xiang Jian Huan (相见欢·无言独上西楼)—composed during his torturous house arrest in the Northern Song capital o…

Alone, in silence, up the west tower I go:

The moon is like a sickle; 

That desolate tree of the phoenix, this clear, cool autumn, locked deep in the courtyard below.

O threads I can’t cut through,

In a tangle I can’t undo!

Such is my parting sorrow---

A taste that tastes so odd, so strange that my heart,  ne’er ever before did know.

   Translated by Andrew W.F. Wong (Huang Hongfa)

Waves Scouring the Sands: Reminiscence ( 浪淘沙·怀旧 )

Li Yu’s Lang Tao Sha (浪淘沙令·帘外雨潺潺)—composed during his brutal house arrest in Kaifeng after the Song Dynasty sy…

Outside the window, a mizzling, drizzling rain,

Spring is on the wane,

The chills b’fore dawn, my silk quilt cannot long sustain.

In dream, unaware I’m none but a guest of my captor’s,

For a while I while in vain.

Alone: from looking afar, I must refrain,

Fair was my kingdom’s terrain,

A paradise lost so readily, so very hard to regain.

Like petals falling on rippling waters, spring is no more:

‘Twas heav’n, now a world profane.

Translated by Andrew W.F. Wong (Huang Hongfa)