Poem of the Day » Li Po http://www.shortpoems.org/poem Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:19:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Hard Is The Journey http://www.shortpoems.org/poem/2008/08/30/hard-is-the-journey/ http://www.shortpoems.org/poem/2008/08/30/hard-is-the-journey/#comments Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:53:24 +0000 Tejvan Pettinger http://www.shortpoems.org/poem/?p=220 Gold vessels of fine wines,
thousands a gallon,
Jade dishes of rare meats,
costing more thousands,

I lay my chopsticks down,
no more can banquet,
I draw my sword and stare
wildly about me:

Ice bars my way to cross
the Yellow River,
Snows from dark skies to climb
the T’ai-hang mountains!

At peace I drop a hook
into a brooklet,
At once I’m in a boat
but sailing sunward…

(Hard is the journey,
Hard is the journey,
So many turnings,
And now where am I?)

So when a breeze breaks waves,
bringing fair weather,
I set a cloud for sails,
cross the blue oceans!

Li Po

]]> http://www.shortpoems.org/poem/2008/08/30/hard-is-the-journey/feed/ 0 The Old Dust http://www.shortpoems.org/poem/2008/05/09/the-old-dust/ http://www.shortpoems.org/poem/2008/05/09/the-old-dust/#comments Fri, 09 May 2008 20:29:04 +0000 Tejvan Pettinger http://www.shortpoems.org/poem/2008/05/09/the-old-dust/ The living is a passing traveler;
The dead, a man come home.
One brief journey betwixt heaven and earth,
Then, alas! we are the same old dust of ten thousand ages.

The rabbit in the moon pounds the medicine in vain;
Fu-sang, the tree of immortality,
has crumbled to kindling wood.
Man dies, his white bones are dumb without a word

When the green pines feel the coming of the spring.
Looking back, I sigh;
Looking before, I sigh again.
What is there to prize in the life’s vaporous glory?

Translated by:Shigeyoshi Obata

Li Po

]]> http://www.shortpoems.org/poem/2008/05/09/the-old-dust/feed/ 0 Green Mountain – Li Po http://www.shortpoems.org/poem/2008/03/20/green-mountain-li-po/ http://www.shortpoems.org/poem/2008/03/20/green-mountain-li-po/#comments Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:23:38 +0000 Tejvan Pettinger http://www.shortpoems.org/poem/2008/03/20/green-mountain-li-po/ You ask me why I dwell in the green mountain;
I smile and make no reply for my heart is free of care.
As the peach-blossom flows down stream
and is gone into the unknown,
I have a world apart that is not among men.

Li Po

]]> http://www.shortpoems.org/poem/2008/03/20/green-mountain-li-po/feed/ 2 Alone and Drinking Under the Moon – Li Po http://www.shortpoems.org/poem/2008/02/16/alone-and-drinking-under-the-moon-li-po/ http://www.shortpoems.org/poem/2008/02/16/alone-and-drinking-under-the-moon-li-po/#comments Sat, 16 Feb 2008 14:17:28 +0000 Tejvan Pettinger http://www.shortpoems.org/poem/2008/02/16/alone-and-drinking-under-the-moon-li-po/ Amongst the flowers I
am alone with my pot of wine
drinking by myself; then lifting
my cup I asked the moon
to drink with me, its reflection
and mine in the wine cup, just
the three of us; then I sigh
for the moon cannot drink,

and my shadow goes emptily along
with me never saying a word;
with no other friends here, I can
but use these two for company;
in the time of happiness, I
too must be happy with all
around me; I sit and sing
and it is as if the moon

accompanies me; then if I
dance, it is my shadow that
dances along with me; while
still not drunk, I am glad
to make the moon and my shadow
into friends, but then when
I have drunk too much, we
all part; yet these are

friends I can always count on
these who have no emotion
whatsoever; I hope that one day
we three will meet again,
deep in the Milky Way.

Li Po

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