Just four lines of Tang poetry

five-character quatrains

1. Lu Chai

Wang Wei

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.

2. Zhuli Pavilion

Wang Wei

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.

3.

Farewell

Wang Wei

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 and but O my Prince of Friends, do you?

4. Acacia

Wang Wei

when those red berries come in springtime and flushing on your southland branches?

take home an armful, for my sake, as a symbol of our love

5. Luchai

Author: Wang Wei

there seems to be no one on the empty mountain, and yet I think I hear a voice.

Back into the deep forest, shines back to me from the green moss.

6.

Miscellaneous poems

Wang Wei

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??

7. Send Cui Jiu

Pei Di

though you think to return to this maze of mountains and oh, let them brim your heart with wonder!.

remember the fisherman from Wuling, who had only a day in the Peach-Blossom Country.

8. Looking at the snow in the south

Zu Yong

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.

9.

a night-mooring on the jiande river

Meng Haoran

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!.

1.

resentment

Li Bai

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?

11.

Eight arrays

Du Fu

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.

12. at heron lodge

Wang Zhihuan

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.

13.

Send Ling Che

Liu Changqing

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.

14. Playing the piano

Liu Changqing

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.

15.

Send to people

Liu Changqing

can drifting clouds and white storks, be tenants in this world of ours?!

or you still live on Wozhou Mountain, now that people are coming here?.

16.

an autumn night message to qiu

Wei Yingwu

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.

17.

Listen to the Zheng

Li Duan

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.

18.

Bride

Wang Jian

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.

19. Yutai

Quan Deyu

last night my girdle came undone, now [Insect is happy] Zifei.

so here are my paints and here are my powders, and a welcome for my yoke again.

2.

Jiang Xue

Liu Zongyuan

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.

21. Palace

Yuan Zhen

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.

22.

a suggestion to my friend liu

Bai Juyi

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??

23.

He Manzi

Zhang Hu

a thousand miles from her home, a lady of the palace lived here these twenty years.

yet ask her for this song and, with the first few words of it, see how she tries to hold back her tears.

24. the leyou tombs

Li Shangyin

with twilight shadows in my heart, I have driven up among the Leyou Tombs.

the sunset is infinitely beautiful, buried by the coming night.

25.

a note left for an absent ecluse

Jia Dao

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?.

26. Crossing the Han River

Li Pin

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.

27.

spring grievances

Jin Changxu

drive the orioles away, all their music from the trees.

they wakened her when she dreamed, that she went to Liaoxi Camp to join him there.