Li Bai 李白
c. 753 · Tang China
Draw a sword to cut the water, and the water flows on. Raise a cup to drown your sorrow, and the sorrow sorrows more. Life in this world never goes as one wishes. Tomorrow I shall let down my hair and go off in a little boat.
抽刀斷水水更流，舉杯銷愁愁更愁。
人生在世不稱意，明朝散髮弄扁舟。"At Xie Tiao's Tower in Xuanzhou, a Farewell to the Collator Shu Yun," in the Complete Tang Poems
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In the same thread
Nameless singers 蔓橫淸類 無名氏
before 1728 · Joseon Korea
A window, let me cut a window, a window in this breast of mine. A lattice window, a slatted window, a lift-up window, a swing-out window, with hinges male and female and a hook and staple, knocked in tight with a great big hammer: let me cut a window in this breast of mine. Then now and again, when it is all too stifling, I could open and shut it.
窓 내고쟈 窓을 내고쟈 이내 가슴에 窓 내고쟈
고모장지 셰살장지 들장지 열장지 암돌져귀 수돌져귀 ᄇᆡ목걸새 크나큰 쟝도리로 ᄯᅮᆼ닥 바가 이내 가슴에 窓 내고쟈
잇다감 하 답답ᄒᆞᆯ 제면 여다져 볼가 ᄒᆞ노라A long sijo (saseol sijo), in Cheonggu yeongeon (1728)
Al-Maarri أبو العلاء المعري
early 11th century · Maarra, Syria
All of life is weariness. I marvel only at one who wants still more of it.
تعب كلها الحياة فما أعجب
إلا من راغب في ازديادThe elegy "Of no use, in my belief," Divan of al-Maarri
Jeong Yakyong 丁若鏞
1804 · Joseon Korea · In exile at Gangjin
Where there is grain there is no one to eat it; where there are many sons there is always the fear of hunger. High officials are sure to be fools, and men of talent have nowhere to use it. Few houses have every blessing, and the highest Way is always in decline. The father is thrifty and the son squanders. The wife is wise and the husband is sure to be a dolt. When the moon is full, clouds often come; when the flowers open, the wind spoils them. All things are like this. I laugh alone, and no one knows why.
有粟無人食 多男必患飢
達官必憃愚 才者無所施
家室少完福 至道常陵遲
翁嗇子每蕩 婦慧郞必癡
月滿頻値雲 花開風誤之
物物盡如此 獨笑無人知Yeoyudang jeonseo, poems, "Laughing Alone"
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