Classical Poetry · LT102

Chu Elegies

Romantic Southern Chu poetic elegies characterized by emotional intensity and mythic imagery.

21works

3dynasties

4authors

Zhou

1046–256 BCE19 works
  1. Songs of Chu · Li Sao (On Encountering Sorrow)Qu YuanThe road ahead is long and far; I will search high and low throughout heaven and earth.
  2. Songs of Chu · She Jiang (Crossing the River)Qu YuanSo long as my soul is upright and true, what harm is there in distant banishment!
  3. Songs of Chu · Guo Shang (Hymn to the Fallen)Qu YuanThough the body be dead the spirit is divine; courageous souls remain heroes among ghosts!
  4. Chuci · Nine Songs · Lady of the Xiang RiverQu YuanThe divine daughter descends upon the northern islet, gazing far away my heart is filled with sorrow. Gently sighs the autumn breeze; waves ripple across Dongting Lake as trees shed their leaves.
  5. Chuci · Nine Songs · Mountain GoddessQu YuanThere seems to be someone in the folds of the mountain, cloaked in fig creeper and belted with dodder. With sidelong glances and sweet smiles, you admire my graceful beauty.
  6. Chuci · Nine Declarations · Ode to the Orange TreeQu YuanNoble tree blessed by Heaven and Earth, the orange tree adapts and thrives. Mandated never to relocate, born to flourish in the southern realm. Deep-rooted and immovable, steadfast with singleness of mind; green leaves and white blossoms delight the eye.
  7. Chuci · Divining Where to DwellQu YuanA foot has its short measure, an inch its long advantage; things have their deficiencies, wisdom its blind spots; divination cannot calculate all, spirits cannot penetrate all. Follow your own heart and pursue your own purpose—tortoise shells and milfoil stalks cannot resolve your dilemma.
  8. Chuci · The FishermanQu YuanThe whole world is turbid and I alone am clean; all men are intoxicated and I alone am sober—for this was I banished. How could I allow my spotlessly clean body to suffer the muddy defilement of worldly filth?
  9. Nine Arguments · ExcerptSong YuHow sorrowful is the breath of autumn! Rustling and bleak, vegetation withers and decays. Chilled to the soul as if journeying far, climbing mountains and overlooking rivers to see off departing friends.
  10. Nine Songs · The Great Sovereign of the EastQu YuanOn an auspicious day and glorious hour, reverently we rejoice the supreme God on High. Grasping long swords with jade guards, pendants clink with ringing chimes. On jade mats adorned with gems, we present fragrant celestial blossoms; steaming orchid dishes and pouring cinnamon wine and pepper nectar.
  11. Nine Songs · The Lord Among the CloudsQu YuanBathing in orchid waters, washing hair in fragrance, dressed in multicolored robes radiant as flowers. The spirit descends and lingers in graceful curves, brilliantly blazing without end. Resting serenely in the Hall of Longevity, shining with equal splendor alongside the sun and moon.
  12. Nine Songs · The Goddess/God of the Xiang RiverQu YuanYou come not, hesitating; whom do you linger with upon the middle islet? Beautiful, delicate, and gracefully adorned, I ride swift in my cassia skiff. Commanding the Yuan and Xiang rivers to calm their waves, making river currents glide peacefully. Gazing for my beloved who arrives not: playing the panpipes, for whom do I yearn?
  13. Nine Songs · The Great Master of FateQu YuanWide open swings the celestial Gate of Heaven; swarming with power I ride upon dark clouds. Ordering rushing gales as my vanguard, commanding pelting showers to lay the dust. The Lord wheels soaring down to earth, passing Kongsang as he descends from Heaven. Who decides right and wrong? Who decrees life and death?
  14. Nine Songs · The Lesser Master of FateQu YuanAutumn orchids and sweet clover flourish in rows below the hall. Emerald leaves and white blossoms waft rich fragrances embracing me. No sorrow is more sorrowful than parting in life; no joy is more joyful than finding a new kindred soul!
  15. Nine Declarations · Lament for YingQu YuanGreat Heaven's mandates are inconstant; why are the common people struck with disaster? The populace is scattered and lost, driven eastward in mid-spring. Leaving my ancestral home for distant realms, following the Jiang and Xia rivers in exile. Passing through the capital gates with an aching heart, on the dawn of Jia I began my journey.
  16. Nine Declarations · Crossing the RiverQu YuanFrom youth I delighted in this wondrous attire, unfading even as old age arrives. Girding a gleaming long sword, wearing a lofty cloud-cutting cap. Draped in radiant pearls and bearing precious gems. The world is turbid and understands me not, yet I soar high without looking back!
  17. Nine Declarations · Embracing the SandQu YuanSweltering is early summer as plants and trees grow dense and lush. Mournful heart in eternal grief, drifting onward to southern lands. Gazing into dim vastness, deeply quiet and silent. Knowing that death cannot be avoided, I hold no clinging love for life. Proclaiming openly to noble gentlemen: I take ancient martyrs as my eternal companions!
  18. Questions to HeavenQu YuanAt the primordial beginning of remote antiquity, who was there to transmit the account? When Heaven and Earth had not yet taken form, how could they be examined? When light and dark were merged in chaos, who could probe their origin? Whirling formless primordial mist—how can it be comprehended? Where are the sun and moon attached? How are the arrays of stars arranged?
  19. Summons of the SoulQu YuanO soul, return! Leaving your abiding body, why wander to the four quarters? Forsaking your joyful abode to risk those perilous perils! O soul, return! In the East you cannot dwell: giants of a thousand fathoms seek only to consume souls. O soul, return! In the South you cannot stay: tattooed foreheads and blackened teeth feast on flesh for sacrifice and pound bones into paste!

Three Kingdoms

220–2801 works
  1. Poem of Sorrow and Indignation · Part II (Sao Form)Cai Yan (Cai Wenji)Five-colored clouds drift over vast swirling waters; surveying heaven and earth, how boundless and desolate! Frosty winds chill the withered brush; when the nomad reed-pipe sounds, my inner heart breaks with sorrow.

Tang

618–9071 works
  1. Heaven Answered · ExcerptLiu ZongyuanOriginally all is One Primordial Qi, generating and transforming ceaselessly without prior design. Who governs it? Who rules it? What does Heaven say? The four seasons move, the hundred things are born.