Li Yu 李煜
late 970s · Southern Tang China · While held captive after losing his kingdom
Cut it, and it does not sever. Sort it, and it tangles again. This is the sorrow of parting. It is a taste all of its own, here in the heart.
剪不斷，理還亂，是離愁。
別是一般滋味，在心頭。To the tune "Joy at Meeting"
In the same thread
Hwang Jini 黃眞伊
16th century (recorded in a songbook of 1876) · Joseon Korea
Ah, what have I done? Did I not know I would miss him so? Had I told him to stay, would he have gone? Yet I, of my own will, sent him away, and this longing now: I do not understand it myself.
어져 ᄂᆡ 일이여 글일 쥴을 모로던가
이시라 ᄒᆞ면 가라마는 제 굿ᄒᆞ여
보ᄂᆡ고 글이는 情은 나도 몰나 ᄒᆞ노라Gagok wollyu (1876)
Im Je 林悌
later 16th century · Joseon Korea
A lovely girl of fifteen, shy before others, parted without a word. Home again, she shut the double gate and wept, facing the moon in the pear blossom.
十五越溪女 羞人無語別
歸來掩重門 泣向梨花月Im Baekho jip, "Parting Without a Word"
Ibn Zaydun ابن زيدون
c. 1040 · Córdoba, al-Andalus
Distance has taken the place of our nearness, and coldness stands where the sweetness of our meeting was.
أضحى التنائي بديلا من تدانينا ،
وناب عن طيب لقيانا تجافيناThe "Nuniyya," a poem sent to Wallada, Divan of Ibn Zaydun
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us