Chinese Poems - Poems about Chinese

Looking through my window Children playing around with slops Dogs cats cows... singing in their own right Trees mingling with the wind songs of praise Some off to the bush for food, Who the LION is none of their business Africa Seems free. On the streets shouting carrying screaming Jesus Muhammad... Working for heaven eden Back home they cant spare a bean for their Neighbor! but...

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the Voice of a Shadowed Engineer They speak of missiles, as if war is still waged with fire. But in the hush of midnight laboratories, beneath the quartz veins of the Tianshan mountains, we built something else— not a weapon, but a whisper in the void, a force that listens, waits, and then erases. It is not housed in silos. It does not roar,...

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The dainty walk of Chinese women beyond the Wall in olden days was due to cruel and unusual punishment confined and constrained by strange customary ways victims of fashion prisoners of fad small feet were in sadly big were bad forced to wear a pair of lotus shoes very small baby steps were all they took altho' it wasn't until 1912 or so when...

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CHINESE TRANSLATIONS IV These are English translations of Chinese poems about nature, the seasons, autumn, winter, spring, night, time, tears, flowers and love. Seeking a Mooring by Wang Wei loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch A leaf drifts through infinite space, a cold wind rends distant clouds. The river flows seaward, the tide repulses. Beyond the moonlit reeds, in unseen villages, I hear fullers’ mallets pounding...

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Fingertips fall— not like stones, but like rain, plucked silver threading the air. Each string holds a hush, a breath not yet forgotten. The musician builds— not a score, but the curve of a heron’s wing skimming dusk softly vanishing in a single glissando. The guzheng does not speak. It spills: vibrato, a tide rising then breaking against memory. Sound leans back— not toward silence ——but toward a distant shore we once heard. ________________ Note: Guzheng is a traditional Chinese musical instrument....

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Seal the mountains, the peaks, the city— The little emperor rides waves like in Shanghai Bund. In the end, the man who loved beauty became a rifle. Where is the man-made bathing pool atop that mountain? The princely courage, allies in accord, Carried martial genes, shamanic rhythms, Carried cells of herbs and discipline, anti-entropy. Like Zhang Xianzhong sinking treasure into the Min...

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LAO TZU ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS IV The Roots of Turbulence by Lao Tzu, translation by Michael R. Burch Heaviness lies at the root of lightness; stillness begets turbulence. Thus the nobleman heads his caravan keeping a constant eye on his possession-laden wagons. At night he sleeps secure behind high-walled towers, undaunted and untroubled. But how can the ruler of ten thousand chariots discard the people so...

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LAO TZU ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS III The Valley Spirit by Lao Tzu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch The valley Spirit never runs dry, the river to whom all waters run: the Spirit of our Primal Mother. Deeply rooting Heaven and Earth, to most eyes a delicate veil dimly seen, yet a never-failing Fountainhead. Adhere to the Feminine by Lao Tzu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R....

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LAO TZU ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS I Be Like Water by Lao Tzu, translation by Michael R. Burch The highest virtue resembles water because water unselfishly benefits all life, then settles, without contention or needless strife, in lowly cisterns. Weep for the Dead by Lao Tzu, translation by Michael R. Burch When seeing mounds of the dead the virtuous weep for the loss of life. When one is...

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CHINESE FEMALE POETS: ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS Creamy Melons by Chao Luan-Luan translation by Michael R. Burch Scented with talcum, moist with perspiration, like pegs of jade inlaid in a harp, aroused by desire, yet soft as cream, fertile amid a warm mist after my bath, as my lover perfumes them, cups them and plays with them, cool as melons and purple grapes. Life in the Palace by Lady...

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CHINESE FEMALE POETS: ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS Sung to the tune of “I Paint My Lips Red” by an anonymous courtesan or Li Ch’ing-Chao loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch After swinging and kicking lasciviously, I get off to rouge my palms. Like dew on a delicate flower, perspiration soaks my thin dress. A new guest enters and my stockings flop, my hairpins fall out. Pretending embarrassment, I...

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The Song of Magpies by Lady Ho translation by Michael R. Burch The magpies nest on the Southern hill. You set your nets on the Northern hill. The magpies escape, soar free. What good are your nets? When magpies fly free, in pairs, why should they envy phoenixes? Although I’m a lowly woman, why should I envy the Duke of Sung? A Song of White Hair by...

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i’ve heard of the year of the rooster but 2025—is the year of the kookoo ...

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Its style is a journey for my mind providing a world onto itself with miles to meander and crevasses to explore with paths to follow allowing my soul to wander AP: Honorable Mention 2025 Submitted on April 25, 2025 for contest YOUR CHOICE V sponsored by BRIAN STRAND - RANKED 8TH Posted on April 10, 2025...

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"When the winds of change blow, some people build walls, while others build windmills."...

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