Li Qingzhao

li qingzhao

The lotus has wilted, only a faint perfume remains;

On the bamboo mat there’s a touch of autumn chill.

Softly I take off my silk dress

And step on board my orchid skiff alone.

Who is sending me the letter of brocade

From beyond the clouds?

When the wild geese return**

The moon will be flooding the West Chamber.

Flowers fall and drift away,

Water glides on,

After their nature.

Our yearning is the sort

Both sides far apart endure–

A melancholy feeling there there’s no resisting.

As soon as it leaves the eyebrows

It surges up in the breast*.

*cited: Ci-pomes of Li Qingzhao: A New English Translation, Sino-platonic Papers. No 13, October, 1989

**Wild geese were thought to be bearers of letters, especially love messages, because of their regular migrations from north to south and vice versa.

awaiting spring 

Glossy branches of jasper, 
A sprinkling of early blossoms,
Touched up by snow bring,
The first tidings of spring.
Soft and delicate in her new make-up,
Fragrant face half showing,
She emerges in the middle of the courtyard--
A beauty in the flower of youth fresh from her bath.
spring
Nature must have regarded her with special favor,
To lavish on her such splendid moonbeams.
Come drain these golden cups of emerald
Till we are drunk.
Of all flowers this the one beyond compare. ~Li Qingzhao 

(cited:   Jiaosheng Wang, Sino-Plantonic Papers The Complete Ci-poems of Li Qingzhao: A New English Translation)