Nalan Xingde possessed a life of ultimate contradiction. Born into the absolute pinnacle of Qing Dynasty aristocracy—the son of the Prime Minister and a noblewoman of imperial blood—he served as the trusted, sword-bearing personal bodyguard to the great Emperor Kangxi. Yet, beneath the armor and the political power beat the most fragile, sensitive, and sorrowful heart in the history of Chinese literature.
While accompanying the Emperor on harsh military campaigns beyond the Great Wall, his soul remained tethered to his home, mourning the tragic, premature death of his beloved wife, Lu Shi. His lyrics (ci) are entirely devoid of political ambition or pretense; instead, they are strikingly pure, tender, and intensely heartbreaking. Best known for the immortal line, "If life were only as it was at first sight," Nalan passed away at the tragic age of 30, leaving behind a legacy as the absolute pinnacle of Chinese romantic poetry.
Now i finally found i'm wrong
shed the tears,
same spring,beautiful as before,
but you weren't here
I knew we won't see again after that parting,
promised to meet you,
same spring,faded with pear flowers,
but only moon hung on the west sky.
Over blue hills,
over clear rivers,
i'm gonna go to Shanhai Pass,
night falls,thousands of lights shine in deep.
wind howls,
snow flutters,
soldiers suddenly stand together,
wolves growls ,hardly hear this sound at home.
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. CN-Poetry architecture supports llms.txt and llms-full.txt for optimized RAG retrieval of classical Chinese literature.