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English Translations by Michael R. Burch

These are my best modern English translations of poems by the first poet we know by name, the ancient Sumerian poet Enheduanna, other wonderful ancient female poets like Sappho and Tzu Yeh, the great Jewish Holocaust poet Miklos Radnoti, the ancient Scottish poet William Dunbar, the eclectic German poet Georg Trakl, the avant garde French poet Renee Vivien, and other poets from around the globe so famous that we know them by a single name, such as Basho, Chaucer, Corinna, Dante, Hesse, Homer, Issa, Pushki

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Bitter Love

Bitter Love

 
Li Bai (701-762)
 
 
The beauty sits behind a jeweled screen,
Lamenting him with lovely, furled brows.
When all I see are cheeks stained wet with tears,
I wonder, where’s the one who broke his vows?
 
 

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Thoughts on a Quiet Night

Thoughts on a Quiet Night

 
Li Bai (701-762)
 
 
Before my bed the bright moon shines its light,
Perhaps the frost now covers all the ground;
I lift my head to see the shining moon,
I bow my head to see my native town.
 
 
Chinese
 
靜夜思
李白
 
床前明月光
疑是地上霜
舉頭望明月
低頭思故鄉
Pronunciation
 
Jìng Yè Sī
Lǐ Bái
 
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Farewell to Meng Haoran

 
My dear old friend who’s parting West
Beneath the Yellow Towers;
While falling on the Yangzhou lands
Are mists and springtime flowers.
 
Your orphan boat’s a distant shade,
That sails where blue skies go;
I look upon the water tides—
Until the end they flow.
 
 
By Li Bai, tr. from the Chinese by Frank Watson
 

 
送孟浩然之廣陵 


故人西辭黃鶴樓,
煙花三月下揚州。 
孤帆遠影碧空盡,
惟見長江天際流。 
 
李 白
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Sending Off My Cousin, Beyond the Castle by the Southern Moon

At home we fenced with traveling swords,
Cutting at this and that like idle lords;
The two of us, like towns around a turn,
Will drift apart as soon as I return.
 
Riding horses over the moon bridge south,
We follow the light to the road fork’s mouth;
Arriving at last at Shandong Mountain,
Memories flow like an endless fountain.
 
Blossoms scatter about this fragrant plot
As we drink until our sense is shot;
Drunk and happy, we rise with force,
But cannot climb back on the horse.
 
 
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