Quotes about longing

Nameless people 詩經 無名氏

c. 8th century BC · Zhou China

My man is away on service, and I do not know for how long. When will he come? The hens are roosting in their holes. The day is ending, and the sheep and cattle come down. My man is away on service. How can I not think of him?

君子于役，不知其期。曷至哉？ 雞棲于塒。日之夕矣，羊牛下來。 君子于役，如之何勿思！

"My Man Is Away on Service" (Junzi yu yi), Airs of Wang, in the Book of Songs

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Nameless people 詩經 無名氏

c. 7th century BC · Zhou China

Blue, blue is your collar. Long, long is my longing. Even though I do not go to you, why do you send no word?

青青子衿，悠悠我心。 縱我不往，子寧不嗣音？

"Your Collar" (Zi jin), Airs of Zheng, in the Book of Songs

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Nameless people 詩經 無名氏

c. 7th century BC · Zhou China

The one who went to gather mugwort: one day not seen is like three autumns!

彼采蕭兮，一日不見，如三秋兮！

"Gathering Kudzu" (Cai ge), Airs of Wang, in the Book of Songs

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Kalidasa कालिदास

c. 4th–5th century · Gupta India

On Rama's shady peak where hermits roam, Mid streams by Sita's bathing sanctified, An erring Yaksha made his hapless home, Doomed by his master humbly to abide, And spend a long, long year of absence from his bride.

The Cloud Messenger (Meghaduta), the first stanza · in place of the original: the English translation by Arthur W. Ryder (1912)

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The pedlar's wife of Jeongeup

said to be from Baekje times (recorded in the Akhak gwebeom, 1493) · Jeongeup, Baekje · Waiting for a husband who went out to sell his wares and has not come back

O moon, rise high, rise high, eogiya, and shine far, far away. Eogiya eogangdyori, aeu darongdiri. Are you at the market now? Eogiya, I fear you may step in a muddy place.

ᄃᆞᆯ하 노피곰 도ᄃᆞ샤 어긔야 머리곰 비취오시라 어긔야 어강됴리 아으 다롱디리 져재 녀러신고요 어긔야 즌ᄃᆡᄅᆞᆯ 드ᄃᆡ욜셰라

"Jeongeupsa" (Song of Jeongeup), in Akhak gwebeom

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Li Bai 李白

8th century · Tang China

Over Chang'an, one slip of moon; from ten thousand houses, the sound of cloth being pounded. The autumn wind blows and cannot blow away all these thoughts of the Jade Pass. When will the frontier be quiet, and my husband come home from the far campaign?

長安一片月，萬戶擣衣聲。 秋風吹不盡，總是玉關情。 何日平胡虜？良人罷遠征。

"Ziye Songs of Wu: Autumn," in the Complete Tang Poems

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Wang Wei 王維

mid-8th century · Tang China · Red beans were called the seeds of longing. The second line is widely known as "when spring comes, how many branches bloom?"; the text here follows the Complete Tang Poems

Red beans grow in the southern land; when autumn comes they sprout on the old branches. Gather as many as you can, I beg you: nothing speaks of longing as these do.

紅豆生南國，秋來發故枝。 願君多采擷，此物最相思。

"Longing," in the Complete Tang Poems

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Du Fu 杜甫

756 · Tang China · Held in rebel-occupied Chang'an during the war

Tonight the moon over Fuzhou: she will be watching it alone from her room. Far away, I ache for my little sons and daughters, too young to know to think of Chang'an.

今夜鄜州月，閨中只獨看。 遙憐小兒女，未解憶長安。

"Moonlit Night," in the Complete Tang Poems

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Du Fu 杜甫

757 · Tang China

The beacon fires have burned for three months on end. A letter from home is worth ten thousand in gold.

烽火連三月，家書抵萬金。

"Spring View," in the Complete Tang Poems

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Cui Hu 崔護

c. 796 · Tang China

Last year, on this day, inside this gate, a face and the peach blossoms shone red upon each other. Where that face has gone I do not know. The peach blossoms smile in the spring wind as before.

去年今日此門中，人面桃花相映紅。 人面不知何處在，桃花依舊笑春風。

"Written at a Village South of the Capital"

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Jin Changxu 金昌緒

c. 8th–9th century · Yuhang, Tang China · In the voice of a wife trying to meet in her dreams a man gone to the far frontier of Liaoxi

Chase the oriole away. Do not let it sing on the bough. Its singing breaks my dream, and I cannot reach Liaoxi.

打起黃鶯兒，莫教枝上啼。 啼時驚妾夢，不得到遼西。

"Spring Lament"

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Bai Juyi 白居易

809 · Tang China · After his friend Yuan Zhen had left on a mission, on an outing to Ci'en Temple in Chang'an

In blossom time we drank together to break the sorrow of spring, and, drunk, snapped off flowering twigs to keep count of the cups. Suddenly I thought of my old friend, gone to the edge of the sky. Counting the stages, today he should reach Liangzhou.

花時同醉破春愁，醉折花枝當酒籌。 忽憶故人天際去，計程今日到涼州。

"Drunk with Li the Eleventh, Thinking of Yuan the Ninth"

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Yuan Zhen 元稹

809 · Tang China · A dream at a post station on his mission. It is said to have been the very day Bai Juyi wrote his poem thinking of him at Ci'en Temple

I dreamed that you and I walked round the Qujiang shore together, and wandered through the courts of Ci'en Temple too. The post-station clerk shouted for the horses to be brought, and I woke with a start to find myself in old Liangzhou.

夢君同繞曲江頭，也向慈恩院院遊。 亭吏呼人排去馬，忽驚身在古梁州。

"A Dream at Liangzhou"

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Xue Tao 薛濤

early 9th century · Tang China

The flowers open and we do not enjoy them together. The flowers fall and we do not grieve together. If you ask when I long for you most: when the flowers open, and when the flowers fall.

花開不同賞，花落不同悲。 欲問相思處，花開花落時。

"Spring Gazing," the first poem, in the Complete Tang Poems

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Li Shangyin 李商隱

c. 851 · Tang China

You ask the day of my return. There is no day yet. On Ba Mountain the night rain swells the autumn pools. When shall we trim the candle together at the west window and talk of this hour of night rain on Ba Mountain?

君問歸期未有期，巴山夜雨漲秋池。 何當共剪西窗燭，却話巴山夜雨時。

"Night Rain, Sent North," in the Complete Tang Poems

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Su Shi 蘇軾

Mid-Autumn Festival, 1076 · Song China · After drinking all night and getting very drunk, thinking of the brother he had not seen in seven years

People have sorrow and joy, parting and reunion. The moon has cloud and clear, full and waning. These things have never been perfect since ancient times. I only wish that you may live long, and that we may share this moon a thousand miles apart.

人有悲歡離合，月有陰晴圓缺，此事古難全。 但願人長久，千里共嬋娟。

To the tune "Prelude to the Water Melody"

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Su Zhe 蘇轍

Mid-Autumn Festival, 1077 · Northern Song China · The year after his brother wrote his song of longing for him under the moon, at the first Mid-Autumn the two had spent together in seven years

How long we have been apart: seven Mid-Autumns have gone by. Last year, on this night at Dongwu, the bright moon was more sorrow than could be borne.

離別一何久，七度過中秋。 去年東武今夕，明月不勝愁。

To the tune "Prelude to the Water Melody": Mid-Autumn at Xuzhou

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Li Qingzhao 李清照

early 12th century · Song China · Missing her husband, far away

There is no way to get rid of this feeling. It has only just left my brow when it rises in my heart.

此情無計可消除，才下眉頭，卻上心頭。

To the tune "A Sprig of Plum Blossom"

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Rumi مولانا جلال‌الدین

c. 1260 · Konya, Anatolia

Listen to this reed flute, how it complains, how it tells the tale of separations: ever since they cut me from the reed bed, men and women have wept at my cry.

بشنو این نی چون شکایت می کند از جداییها حکایت می کند کز نیستان تا مرا ببریده اند در نفیرم مرد و زن نالیده اند

Masnavi, the opening

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Dante Alighieri

early 14th century · Florence

There is no greater pain than to remember the happy time in misery.

Nessun maggior dolore che ricordarsi del tempo felice nella miseria

The Divine Comedy, Inferno, canto 5, the words of Francesca

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Hwang Jini 黃眞伊

16th century (recorded in a songbook of 1728) · Joseon Korea

I will cut the waist out of the long, long night of the eleventh month, and coil it away under a quilt of spring wind, and on the night my love comes, uncoil it turn by turn.

冬至ㅅᄃᆞᆯ 기나긴 밤을 한허리를 버혀 내여 春風 니불 아레 서리서리 너헛다가 어론 님 오신 날 밤이여든 구뷔구뷔 펴리라

Cheonggu yeongeon (1728)

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Heo Bong 許篈

c. 1584 · Joseon Korea · While in exile at Gapsan in the far north. In old poetry the wagtail stands for brothers and sisters

Trees on the passes ring the frontier town a thousand deep. The river runs east and the sea is lost in darkness. Ten thousand li from home: how is such sorrow to be borne? In grief I watch a sick wagtail on the sandbank.

嶺樹千重遶塞城 江流東下海冥冥 辭家萬里堪怊悵 愁見沙頭病鶺鴒

Hagok jip, "Sent to My Sister"

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Heo Nanseolheon 許蘭雪軒

c. 1584 · Joseon Korea · To her brother Heo Bong in exile

At the dark window the silver candle burns low. Fireflies cross the high pavilion. Silently the deep night turns cold. With a rustle the autumn leaves come down. From the frontier passes news is rare, and this deep worry cannot be undone. Far away I picture the Blue Lotus Palace: the hills empty, the moon white through the vines.

暗窓銀燭低 流螢度高閣 悄悄深夜寒 蕭蕭秋葉落 關河音信稀 端憂不可釋 遙想靑蓮宮 山空蘿月白

Nanseolheon sijip, "Sent to Hagok"

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Yu Huigyeong 劉希慶

late 16th century · Joseon Korea · Gyerang is Maechang, the gisaeng of Buan

Your house is in Buan, my house is in the capital. Longing, and never meeting: my heart breaks with the rain on the paulownia leaves.

娘家在浪州 我家住京口 相思不相見 腸斷梧桐雨

Chon'eun jip, "Thinking of Gyerang"

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Sin Heum 申欽

early 17th century · Joseon Korea

A rustling outside the window: is it you? I got up to look. On the path where the orchids grow, what are fallen leaves doing? Ah, this heart of mine has its limits, and I fear it will break right through.

창 밧긔 워석버석 님이신가 니러 보니 혜란(蕙蘭) 혜경(蹊徑)에 낙엽은 므스 일고 어즈버 유한(有限)ᄒᆞᆫ 간장(肝腸)이 다 그츨가 ᄒᆞ노라

A sijo, in Cheonggu yeongeon

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W. B. Yeats

1899 · Dublin, Ireland · Sligo

And pluck till time and times are done, The silver apples of the moon, The golden apples of the sun.

"The Song of Wandering Aengus," in The Wind Among the Reeds

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