A pale face with hair grey,
When can I go home without care?
No word's received from my friends old or new,
Only the songstress fair
Comes to sing for me a song of adieu.
On leaving the pavilion, with sobs she sings;
The chilly breeze a drizzling rain to my cheeks brings.
Don't use your handkerchief to wipe your tears away!
Let them fall on your silken sleeves!
When we meet again, I know how it grieves.
苍颜华发，故山归计何时决！
旧交新贵音书绝，惟有佳人，犹作殷勤别。
离亭欲去歌声咽，潇潇细雨凉吹颊。
泪珠不用罗巾浥，弹在罗衫，图得见时说。
The poet writes this lyric for a songstress who sheds tears when they part.
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.