The Jade Flute Quotes

“The autumn moon is dancing in the green waters of Lake Nan-Hou. Now the sound of my oars has troubled the love-song of white water-lilies singing to the moon.”
― Li Po, The Jade Flute: Chinese Poems in Prose

“You ask me: when will I come home? There is no date settled yet. Here, at Pa-Shan in autumn, evening rain floods the hollows.

O for the time when we can put out the candle together by the Western window...O for the time when I can tell you how I feel here tonight at Pa-Shan, when autumn rain floods the hollows.”
― Li-Shang-yin, The Jade Flute: Chinese Poems in Prose

“Oh Dragon, ruler of the shoreless sea of death, carry away my belovèd, while, leaning over her with passion, I drink in her perfumed breath.
Carry her away in your ship of ghosts, and carry me away with her...that we may float forever together on that sea, drunken with love.”
― Li Hung-chang, The Jade Flute: Chinese Poems in Prose

“Clean the October wind. Clear the October moon. Heaped brown leaves are blowing...a black raven flies from its icy roost.
I dream of you. Will I ever see you again? Ah, night of sorrowing heart!”
― Li Po, The Jade Flute: Chinese Poems in Prose

“Here, day and night, the prettiest women of the Empire are dancing...songs and laughter echo from the golden screens.
When all the others are overcome with drinking, I put down my wine. I take my brush, I wet the golden ink, and I write sad poems with swaying characters that look like these rosy bodies strewn on a marble floor.”
― Chang Wu-chien, The Jade Flute: Chinese Poems in Prose

“I planted bamboos,

more than a

hundred shoots.

When I see their

beauty, as they grow

by the stream-side,

I feel again as though

I lived in the hills,

And many a time on

public holidays

Round their railing I

walk till night comes”
― Po Chu-i, The Jade Flute: Chinese Poems in Prose