孟郊诗

Poems of Meng Jiao


Index

李少府厅吊李元宾遗字

In Treasurer Li's hall, mourning over the writings Li Yuanbin left behind


零落三四字
忽成千万年
那知冥寞客
不有补亡篇

A few scattered manuscripts
Suddenly achieve eternity.
By these, we know our silent guest
Has no writings that will feed death too.

斜月吊空壁
旅人难独眠
一生能几时
百虑来相煎

Slanting moonlight hanging on an empty wall
Makes it hard for a wanderer to sleep alone.
It seems like all our lives
A hundred troubles always came between us.

戚戚故交泪
幽幽长夜泉
已矣难重言
一言一潸然

Like family, tears for my old friend,
Far, far away in death's eternal springs.
Already, it's hard to speak again.
At every word, more tears fall.

-- 孟郊


废话

It seems as if all the remaining poems have titles with "mourn" (吊) or "cry" (哭). Between the harshness of the times and the loss of one friend after another, Meng Jiao enters the final phase of his poetry. In this last tenth of the poems are half of the longest poems, including "Mourning the Gorges" which was the poem I began with and which caused me to translate the rest of Meng Jiao's work. Perhaps, he is now unable to go up into the mountains. That would be a sadness I could understand.


Index