Du Fu 杜甫
759 · Tang China · Visiting an old friend's house after twenty years
How long does youth last? Our temples have both turned grey. We ask after old friends, and half are ghosts. We cry out, and something burns within.
少壯能幾時，鬢髮各已蒼。
訪舊半爲鬼，驚呼熱中腸。"For the Recluse Wei the Eighth," in the Complete Tang Poems
In the same thread
Xin Qiji 辛棄疾
1180s · Song China
When I was young I did not know the taste of sorrow, and loved to climb the high tower. I loved to climb the high tower, and to make a new song I forced myself to speak of sorrow. Now I know the taste of sorrow to the full, and start to speak and stop. I start to speak and stop, and say instead: "A cool day. What a fine autumn."
少年不識愁滋味，愛上層樓。愛上層樓，爲賦新詞強說愁。
而今識盡愁滋味，欲說還休。欲說還休，卻道天涼好箇秋。To the tune "The Ugly Slave": written on a wall on the road to Boshan
Heo Nanseolheon 許蘭雪軒
1580s · Joseon Korea · Handed down as the work of Heo Nanseolheon
Only the other day I was young; how have I grown so old already? I think of the pleasures of my youth, but there is no use speaking of them. Old now, I try to tell my sorrows and my throat closes.
엇그제 저멋더니 ᄒᆞ마 어이 다 늘거니
소년행락(小年行樂) 생각ᄒᆞ니 일러도 속절업다
늘거야 서른 말ᄉᆞᆷ ᄒᆞ자니 목이 멘다The gasa "Gyuwonga" (A Woman's Sorrow), the opening
Li Shangyin 李商隱
mid-9th century · Tang China
Towards evening, my heart ill at ease, I drive my carriage up to the ancient plain. The setting sun is boundlessly good, only it is so near to dusk.
向晚意不適，驅車登古原。
夕陽無限好，只是近黃昏。"Leyou Plain," in the Complete Tang Poems
Wang Bo 王勃
c. 675 · Tang China
Old, one should be all the stronger: how could white hair change the heart? Poor, one should be all the firmer, and never let fall one's aim among the blue clouds.
老當益壯，寧移白首之心？窮且益堅，不墜青雲之志。"Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng"
Seneca Lucius Annaeus Seneca
c. AD 63 · Roman Empire · On visiting his country house after a long time and finding that the crumbling building, the old trees and the aged doorkeeper were all his own age
Let us embrace old age and love it. It is full of pleasure, if you know how to use it.
Complectamur illam et amemus; plena <est> voluptatis, si illa scias uti.Letters to Lucilius 12
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us