University of Virginia Library

Five-character-quatrain

五言絕句 王維 鹿柴

空山不見人, 但聞人語響。
返景入深林, 復照青苔上。

Five-character-quatrain
Wang Wei DEER-PARK HERMITAGE

There seems to be no one on the empty mountain....
And yet I think I hear a voice,
Where sunlight, entering a grove,
Shines back to me from the green moss.

五言絕句 王維 竹里館

獨坐幽篁裡, 彈琴復長嘯。
深林人不知, 明月來相照。

Five-character-quatrain
Wang Wei IN A RETREAT AMONG BAMBOOS

Leaning alone in the close bamboos,
I am playing my lute and humming a song
Too softly for anyone to hear --
Except my comrade, the bright moon.

五言絕句 王維 送別

山中相送罷, 日暮掩柴扉。
春草明年綠, 王孫歸不歸。

Five-character-quatrain
Wang Wei A PARTING

Friend, I have watched you down the mountain
Till now in the dark I close my thatch door....
Grasses return again green in the spring,
But O my Prince of Friends, do you?

五言絕句 王維 相思

紅豆生南國, 春來發幾枝。
願君多采擷, 此物最相思。

Five-character-quatrain
Wang Wei ONE-HEARTED

When those red berries come in springtime,
Flushing on your southland branches,
Take home an armful, for my sake,
As a symbol of our love.

五言絕句 王維 雜詩

君自故鄉來, 應知故鄉事。
來日綺窗前, 寒梅著花未。

Five-character-quatrain
Wang Wei LINES

You who have come from my old country,
Tell me what has happened there ! --
Was the plum, when you passed my silken window,
Opening its first cold blossom?

五言絕句 裴迪 送崔九

歸山深淺去, 須盡丘壑美。
莫學武陵人, 暫遊桃源裡。

Five-character-quatrain
Pei Di A FAREWELL TO CUI

Though you think to return to this maze of mountains,
Oh, let them brim your heart with wonder!....
Remember the fisherman from Wuling
Who had only a day in the Peach-Blossom Country.

五言絕句 祖詠 終南望餘雪

終南陰嶺秀, 積雪浮雲端。
林表明霽色, 城中增暮寒。

Five-character-quatrain
Zu Young ON SEEING THE SNOW-PEAK OF ZHONGNAN

See how Zhongnan Mountain soars
With its white top over floating clouds --
And a warm sky opening at the snow-line
While the town in the valley grows colder and colder.

五言絕句 孟浩然 宿建德江

移舟泊煙渚, 日暮客愁新。
野曠天低樹, 江清月近人。

Five-character-quatrain
Meng Haoran A NIGHT-MOORING ON THE JIANDE RIVER

While my little boat moves on its mooring of mist,
And daylight wanes, old memories begin....
How wide the world was, how close the trees to heaven,
And how clear in the water the nearness of the moon!

五言絕句 孟浩然 春曉

春眠不覺曉, 處處聞啼鳥。
夜來風雨聲, 花落知多少。

Five-character-quatrain
Meng Haoran A SPRING MORNING

I awake light-hearted this morning of spring,
Everywhere round me the singing of birds --
But now I remember the night, the storm,
And I wonder how many blossoms were broken.

五言絕句 李白 夜思

床前明月光, 疑是地上霜。
舉頭望明月, 低頭思故鄉。

Five-character-quatrain
Li Bai IN THE QUIET NIGHT

So bright a gleam on the foot of my bed --
Could there have been a frost already?
Lifting myself to look, I found that it was moonlight.
Sinking back again, I thought suddenly of home.

五言絕句 李白 怨情

美人捲珠簾, 深坐蹙蛾眉。
但見淚痕濕, 不知心恨誰。

Five-character-quatrain
Li Bai A BITTER LOVE

How beautiful she looks, opening the pearly casement,
And how quiet she leans, and how troubled her brow is!
You may see the tears now, bright on her cheek,
But not the man she so bitterly loves.

五言絕句 杜甫 八陣圖

功蓋三分國, 名成八陣圖。
江流石不轉, 遺恨失吞吳。

Five-character-quatrain
Du Fu THE EIGHT-SIDED FORTRESS

The Three Kingdoms, divided, have been bound by his greatness.
The Eight-Sided Fortress is founded on his fame;
Beside the changing river, it stands stony as his grief
That he never conquered the Kingdom of Wu.

五言絕句 王之渙 登鸛雀樓

白日依山盡, 黃河入海流。
欲窮千里目, 更上一層樓。

Five-character-quatrain
Wang Zhihuan AT HERON LODGE

Mountains cover the white sun,
And oceans drain the golden river;
But you widen your view three hundred miles
By going up one flight of stairs.

五言絕句 劉長卿 送靈澈

蒼蒼竹林寺, 杳杳鐘聲晚。
荷笠帶斜陽, 青山獨歸遠。

Five-character-quatrain
Liu Changqing ON PARTING WITH THE BUDDHIST PILGRIM LING CHE

From the temple, deep in its tender bamboos,
Comes the low sound of an evening bell,
While the hat of a pilgrim carries the sunset
Farther and farther down the green mountain.

五言絕句 劉長卿 彈琴

泠泠七絃上, 靜聽松風寒。
古調雖自愛, 今人多不彈。

Five-character-quatrain
Liu Changqing ON HEARING A LUTE-PLAYER

Your seven strings are like the voice
Of a cold wind in the pines,
Singing old beloved songs
Which no one cares for any more.

五言絕句 劉長卿 送上人

孤雲將野鶴, 豈向人間住。
莫買沃洲山, 時人已知處。

Five-character-quatrain
Liu Changqing FAREWELL TO A BUDDHIST MONK

Can drifting clouds and white storks
Be tenants in this world of ours? --
Or you still live on Wuzhou Mountain,
Now that people are coming here?

五言絕句 韋應物 秋夜寄邱員外

懷君屬秋夜, 散步詠涼天。
空山松子落, 幽人應未眠。

Five-character-quatrain
Wei Yingwu AN AUTUMN NIGHT MESSAGE TO QIU

As I walk in the cool of the autumn night,
Thinking of you, singing my poem,
I hear a mountain pine-cone fall....
You also seem to be awake.

五言絕句 李端 聽箏

鳴箏金粟柱, 素手玉房前。
欲得周郎顧, 時時誤拂絃。

Five-character-quatrain
Li Duan ON HEARING HER PLAY THE HARP

Her hands of white jade by a window of snow
Are glimmering on a golden-fretted harp --
And to draw the quick eye of Chou Yu,
She touches a wrong note now and then.

五言絕句 王建 新嫁娘

三日入廚下, 洗手作羹湯。
未諳姑食性, 先遣小姑嘗。

Five-character-quatrain
Wang Jian A BRIDE

On the third day, taking my place to cook,
Washing my hands to make the bridal soup,
I decide that not my mother-in-law
But my husband's young sister shall have the fiat taste.

五言絕句 權德輿 玉臺體

昨夜裙帶解, 今朝蟢子飛。
鉛華不可棄, 莫是□砧歸。

Five-character-quatrain
Quan Deyu THE JADE DRESSING-TABLE

Last night my girdle came undone,
And this morning a luck-beetle flew over my bed.
So here are my paints and here are my powders --
And a welcome for my yoke again.

五言絕句 柳宗元 江雪

千山鳥飛絕, 萬徑人蹤滅。
孤舟簑笠翁, 獨釣寒江雪。

Five-character-quatrain
Liu Zongyuan RIVER-SNOW

A hundred mountains and no bird,
A thousand paths without a footprint;
A little boat, a bamboo cloak,
An old man fishing in the cold river-snow.

五言絕句 元稹 行宮

寥落古行宮, 宮花寂寞紅。
白頭宮女在, 閒坐說玄宗。

Five-character-quatrain
Yuan Zhen THE SUMMER PALACE

In the faded old imperial palace,
Peonies are red, but no one comes to see them....
The ladies-in-waiting have grown white-haired
Debating the pomps of Emperor Xuanzong.

五言絕句 白居易 問劉十九

綠螘新醅酒, 紅泥小火爐。
晚來天欲雪, 能飲一杯無。

Five-character-quatrain
Bai Juyi A SUGGESTION TO MY FRIEND LIU

There's a gleam of green in an old bottle,
There's a stir of red in the quiet stove,
There's a feeling of snow in the dusk outside --
What about a cup of wine inside?

五言絕句 張祜 何滿子

故國三千里, 深宮二十年。
一聲何滿子, 雙淚落君前。

Five-character-quatrain
Zhang Hu SHE SINGS AN OLD SONG

A lady of the palace these twenty years,
She has lived here a thousand miles from her home -
Yet ask her for this song and, with the first few words of it,
See how she tries to hold back her tears.

五言絕句 李商隱 登樂遊原

向晚意不適, 驅車登古原。
夕陽無限好, 只是近黃昏。

Five-character-quatrain
Li Shangyin THE LEYOU TOMBS

With twilight shadows in my heart
I have driven up among the Leyou Tombs
To see the sun, for all his glory,
Buried by the coming night.

五言絕句 賈島 尋隱者不遇

松下問童子, 言師採藥去。
只在此山中, 雲深不知處。

Five-character-quatrain
Jia Dao A NOTE LEFT FOR AN ABSENT ECLUSE

When I questioned your pupil, under a pine-tree,
"My teacher," he answered, " went for herbs,
But toward which corner of the mountain,
How can I tell, through all these clouds ?"

五言絕句 李頻 渡漢江

嶺外音書絕, 經冬復立春。
近鄉情更怯, 不敢問來人。

Five-character-quatrain
Li Pin CROSSING THE HAN RIVER

Away from home, I was longing for news
Winter after winter, spring after spring.
Now, nearing my village, meeting people,
I dare not ask a single question.

五言絕句 金昌緒 春怨

打起黃鶯兒, 莫教枝上啼。
啼時驚妾夢, 不得到遼西。

Five-character-quatrain
Jin Changzu A SPRING SIGH

Drive the orioles away,
All their music from the trees....
When she dreamed that she went to Liaoxi Camp
To join him there, they wakened her

五言絕句 西鄙人 哥舒歌

北斗七星高, 哥舒夜帶刀。
至今窺牧馬, 不敢過臨洮。

Five-character-quatrain
Xibiren GENERAL GE SHU

This constellation, with its seven high stars,
Is Ge Shu lifting his sword in the night:
And no more barbarians, nor their horses, nor cattle,
Dare ford the river boundary.