Corn Poppy 虞美人

 

                          Corn Poppy

Written by Yu Li, translated by Changkun Hu

When the Spring flower blossoms no more?
When the Autumn moon is no longer lighted?
How much do you remember about the past?
An east wind blew the attic last night once more.
It’s unbearable to look back to my lost country in the fair moonlight.

The carved rails and the marble steps should be still there,
But they wouldn’t be the same beauty as before.
How much sorrow do I have?
Just like the water of a river in the Spring,
Flows to the east and it’ll be never returned.

The original one is as follow:

《虞美人》
 
    李煜

春花秋月何时了，
往事知多少？
小楼昨夜又东风，
故国不堪回首月明中。

雕栏玉砌应犹在，
只是朱颜改。
问君能有几多愁，
恰似一江春水向东流。

    这是我最喜爱的一首诗词。作者是中国五代（907-960）时期的一名亡国 之君, 这首词是他的巅峰之作, 而他本人却因此而丧命，成为中国史上诗词界最伟大的损失。

    This is my favorite poetry. The author is a previous king of a lost country during the Five Dynasties (907-960). This poetry is his best one, and he was died because of this poetry. It became the greatest loss for poetry in Chinese history.