Lunar New Year’s Day
At the sound of crackers crackers the old year died;
The ferocious breeze brings us warm wine and a warm spring day.
On a thousand doors the sun shines brilliant light, behold!
New couplings hang on the doors to replace the old.
-Wang Anshi
Swallows Pavilion
I.
Upstairs the dying lamp glows with morning frost;
The lonely widow rises from her nuptial bed.
Sleepless all night long, in mourning thoughts she is lost;
Night seems endless as the infinite sky before you.
II
The pine in front of his grave is covered with sad smoke;
At the pensive Swallows Pavilion she appears.
Her songs pushed for burial are her sword and cloak;
Her dancing dress has lost her perfume for ten years.
III
She has seen a wild gees from her lord’s grave back,
And now she sees the swallows coming with spring again.
On flute and zither she is in no mood to play;
Buried in spider webs and dusty they remain.
-Zhang Zhongsu
Chaste Wife’s response
You know I love my husband best,
Yet two bright pearls are still sent to me.
I hang them in my red silk vest,
How grateful I am for your goodwill.
You see my house overlooking the garden and
My husband is guarding the palace, halberd in hand.
I know your heart as noble as the sun in the sky,
But I have sworn to serve my husband all my life.
With your twin pearls I send two tears back from my eyes.
Would we have met before I was a wife!
-Zhang Ji
Spring View
We do not enjoy together blooming flowers,
Their fall together does not shed our tears either.
Oh why do I love from hour to hour
To see flowers appear or disappear!
-Xue Tao
Success In Civil Service Exam
Gone are all my woes past! What else do I have to say?
My body and mind enjoy filling them today.
Successful, faster runs my horse in a peasant breeze;
I have seen within one day all the flowers on Chang ‘trees.
-Meng Jiao
February 12, 2021, was the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year, recognized as the Year of the ox. In China, the celebrations continue as the New Year is the largest and most popular festival of that nation’s people. The holiday wrapped up on New Year’s Eve (Friday, February 11). The traditional relics, dinners and rituals were followed by the public holidays when Chinese were off work for 7 days from February 12 to 18. But even after that holiday period, the New Year season continue until February 26 when the Lantern Festival ends.