Parting at Night
(Translated by Hao Yang)
Inch your eyes closer to mine,
Let me gaze again at the stars that twinkle in the sea.
Whence comes the tide that smudges starlight?
Are they teardrops, are they yours or mine?
By your earlobe, your silky hair swims in the wind,
And in turn, the moonlight ebbs and flows through it;
My soul trembles, just like the moonlight,
Like a falling leaf bidding farewell to an autumnal tree.
As saplings grow watered by summer showers,
The budding shoots, just falling in love, in my tears secretly grow.
Until they have grown into old giant trees,
Who knows where the gentle hands that planted them have gone!
Your back vanishes into the black of night, and discreetly
I hear the closing of the doors of heaven.
I am Altair without his Vega,
Accompanied only by a lamenting reed.
