孟郊诗

Poems of Meng Jiao


Index

汝坟蒙从弟楚材见赠时郊将入秦楚材适楚

Your obscure grave, where I saw Chu's talent, written when I made offerings and, returning to Chang'an, realised how fitting your talent was for Chu


朝为主人心
暮为行客吟
汝水忽凄咽
汝风流苦音

Morning governed by your masters' hearts.
Evening governed by your exiles' moans.
Your rivers rush in cold sobs.
Your winds flow in bitter voices.

北阙秦门高
南路楚石深
分泪洒白日
离肠绕青岑

Northern palace by Qin's high gates.
Southern road through Chu's deep stones.
Leaving tears, sprinkled in broad daylight, and
Parting emotions wrapped 'round blue hills.

何以寄远怀
黄鹤能相寻

How can I leave these distant feelings
Where the yellow crane can find them?

-- 孟郊


废话

Whose grave? Probably a Chu Kingdom poet's. Not Qu Yuan's -- his grave was a river. Someone associated with a "yellow crane." Yellow Crane Tower, originally built in 223 AD and last rebuilt in 1981, is a famous tower associated with poetry. Its legends have to do with people riding yellow cranes. So what Chu poet was associated with a yellow crane? The answer to this probably has more to do with how the tower was named than either of its crane-riding legends. Everything we think we know is (at least, partially) wrong.


Index