Li Shangyin 李商隱
poet · Tang China · 813?–858?
A poet of the late Tang. Caught between factions, he drifted through provincial offices all his life.
Posts
mid-9th century
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
mid-9th century
To meet is hard, and to part is hard too. The east wind has no strength and the hundred flowers wither. The spring silkworm spins its thread until it dies. The candle's tears dry only when it has turned to ash.
相見時難別亦難，東風無力百花殘。
春蠶到死絲方盡，蠟炬成灰淚始乾。"Untitled"
mid-9th century · Chang'e is the woman said to have stolen her husband's elixir of immortality, fled to the moon, and lived there alone
On the mica screen the candle's shadow deepens; the long river of stars sinks slowly, the morning star goes down. Chang'e must regret stealing the elixir: blue sea, blue sky, and her heart, night after night.
雲母屏風燭影深，長河漸落曉星沈。
常娥應悔偷靈藥，碧海青天夜夜心。"Chang'e," in the Complete Tang Poems
c. 851
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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