李白

長干行

妾發初覆額， 折花門前劇；

郎騎竹馬來， 繞床弄青梅。

同居長干里， 兩小無嫌猜。

十四為君婦， 羞顏未嘗開；

低頭向暗壁， 千喚不一回，

十五始展眉， 愿同塵與灰；

常存抱柱信， 豈上望夫臺？

十六君遠行， 瞿塘滟滪堆；

5月不可觸， 猿鳴天上哀。

門前遲行跡， 一一生綠苔；

苔深不可以掃， 落葉秋風早。

8月蝴蝶來， 雙飛西園草。

感此傷妾心， 坐愁紅顏老。

早晚下三巴， 預將書報家；

相迎不道遠， 直至長風沙。

Folk-song-styled-verse

Li Bai

A SONG OF CHANGGAN

My hair had hardly covered my forehead.

I was picking flowers, paying by my door,

When you, my lover, on a bamboo horse,

Came trotting^{1 in circles and throwing green plums.}

We lived near together on a lane in Ch'ang-kan,

Both of us young and happy-hearted.

At fourteen I became your wife,

So bashful that I dared not smile,

And I lowered my head toward a dark corner

And would not turn to your thousand calls；

But at fifteen I straightened my brows and laughed,

Learning that no dust could ever seal our love,

That even unto death I would await you by my post

And would never lose heart in the tower of silent watching.

Then when I was sixteen, you left on a long journey

Through the Gorges^{2 of Ch'u-t'ang, of rock and whirling water.}

And then came the Fifth-month, more than I could bear,

And I tried to hear the monkeys in your lofty far-off sky.

Your footprints by our door, where I had watched you go,

Were hidden, every one of them, under green moss^3,

Hidden under moss too deep to sweep away.

And the first autumn wind added fallen leaves.

And now, in the Eighth-month, yellowing butterflies

Hover^{4, two by two, in our west-garden grasses}

And, because of all this, my heart is breaking

And I fear for my bright cheeks, lest they fade.

Oh, at last, when you return through the three Pa districts,

Send me a message home ahead！

And I will come and meet you and will never mind the distance,

All the way to Chang-feng Sha.