Romantic Introspection Poems

Chinese translations Li Bai

These are my modern English translations of Chinese poems by Li Bai, who was also known as Li Po.



Zazen on Ching-t’ing Mountain
by...

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In company of memories,
  and moonlight,
         where nothing more,
 than a distant snore,
   ...

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Early light washes over me
and love is an ocean.
I look out the window
as squirrels and sparrows 
hop across the yard and play—
it could be spring
it...

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Such is a sorrow sculpted of sunstone,
Immortalised with studious refrain,
Tragedy, still, in beautiful atone,
Exuding light from a languish of pain.

Young Venus, I be, suspended in...

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The years of youth lost...unrecoverable,
from a life of debauchery.
   Where all the faces are now nameless.
   From the fresh scent of...

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The obnoxious sound of heartbeats boom
Drumming incessantly overhead 
Here I sit in the belly of your gloom
Wanting for your blighted affection

Play me not for such...

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I am two different people
Superficially the same

One inside the romantic
and totally right brained

the other is pragmatic
intellectualizing all

A dichotomy of thought on two different keys
a melody...

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In a breeze of timid whispers 
and with wary downcast eyes
the secret world was opened 
to where true depth of feeling lies.

With each step, stories...

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Would I be disappointed though
If this didn’t lead to more?
Four years of waiting
And all we have is idle conversation.
Two people who changed so much
That they’re...

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Sometimes I long to break down my walls and let them see inside but I did that just the other day and I’ve never felt...

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I’m with you,
I’m without when not.

That’s how much you’ve become.
Plastered fabric enmeshed into me.
Like drywall, yet to crack, but firm and white.

Bare bones make us...

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Scared, shaking candle—
Fire's a gasp, in the dark; lifts
Single finger high, 
Points to a shady wall; freed
Shadows warmed beyond the hall....

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“A”loves B,
               but B loves J,
     ...

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Feelings are those seismic ocean waves,
they capture evanescent moments,
a Jack-o-lantern thought which might vanish,
deep breath of ink blue laden vortex,
I wallow in the beneficial sweep,
elation...

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Just because I cannot have you 
Doesn't mean I cannot love you 
There are many things in life that may not be

But if there ever...

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