Four poems by Tu Mu [803-52], late T'ang Dynasty

Easing My Heart
By rivers and lakes at odds with life I journeyed, wine my freight:
Slim waists of Ch'u broke my heart, light bodies danced into my palm.
Ten years late I wake at last out of my Yang-chou dream
With nothing but the name of a drifter in the blue houses.

To Judge Han Ch'o at Yang-chou
Over misted blue hills and distant water
In Chiang-nan at autumn's end the grass has not yet wilted.
By night on the Four-and-Twenty Bridges, under the full moon,
Where are you teaching a jade girl to blow tunes on your flute?

Farewell Poem
Passion too deep seems like none.
While we drink, nothing shows but the smile that will not come.
The wax candles feel, suffer at partings:
Their tears drip for us until the sky brightens.

Autumn Evening
Silvery autumn candlelight chills the painted screen,
A little fan of light silk flaps the streaming fireflies.
Cool as water, the night sheen of the steps into the sky.
She lies and watches the Weaver Girl meet the Herdboy Star.