TUNE: SONG OF DIVINATION

Chen Guan

Northern Song Dynasty

My body is a leaflike boat,

And like the tide all events flow.

I let my boat on the rising tide float;

So on the waves I come and go.

The tide may fall and rise again;

As of old will things stop and start.

Next time when I drink alone,

 the moon will not wane,

But we're a thousand miles apart.

卜算子

[北宋]陈瓘

身如一叶舟,万事从头起。

水长船高一任伊,来往洪涛里。

 潮落又潮生,今古长如此。

后夜开尊独酌时,月满人千里。

About the poet 

Chen Guan was a Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) poet who also created many calligraphy works that still inspire Chinese calligraphy

About the translator 

Xu Yuanchong (1921-2021) was born in Nanchang in East China's Jiangxi Province. He was a professor of literary translation at Peking University.

About the book 

Golden Treasury of Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Poetry Translated by Xu Yuanchong & Xu Ming Published by China Intercontinental Press, Beijing, 2018