LAKE DONGTING VIEWED FROM AFAR

Liu Yuxi

(772-842, Tang Dynasty)

The autumn moon dissolve in soft light of the lake,

Unruffled surface like unpolished mirror bright.

Afar, the isle' mid clear water without a break

Looks like a spiral shell in a plate silver-white.

望洞庭 

 唐 刘禹锡

湖光秋月两相和,潭面无风镜未磨

遥望洞庭山水色,白银盘里一青螺

About the poet 

Liu Yuxi, a well-known Chinese poet and philosopher active during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The poet was particularly interested in writing poetry that reflected economic and social problems in ordinary people's everyday lives.

About the book 

300 Tang Poems / Translated by Xu Yuanchong (1921-2021) 

Published by China Intercontinental Press

About the translator 

Born in Nanchang in East China's Jiangxi Province, Xu Yuanchong was a professor of literary translation at Peking University. He won the lifetime Achievement Award in Translation conferred by the Translators Association of China (TAC) in 2010 and won the "Aurora Borealis" Prize for Outstanding Translation of Fiction Literature in 2014.

Book 300 Tang Poems translated by Xu Yuanchong Photo: Courtesy for China Intercontinental Press