Chinese Poetry
Translations from the Chinese
by Arthur Waley & Illustrated by Cyrus Le Roy Baldridge
Chinese traditional poetry has a strict form: a fixed number of syllables per line and rhyming is obligatory.
By Yang-ti (AD 605-617), Emperor of the Sui dynasty
WInter Night
My bed is so empty that I keep on waking up;
As the cold increases, the night-wind begins to blow,
It rustles the curtains, making a noise like the sea:
Oh that those were waves which could carry me back to you!
