Top 10 Classic Chinese Love Poems

Poetry has been a favorite literary genre in China for thousands of years. And many of the Chinese poems are about love. Here I compiled a number of well-known love poems from China’s long literary history, though some of them were written by unknown author, all these poems remain alive and on people s lips since they were written.

1. Song of River City 《江城子•记梦》by Su Shi (Song Dynasty)

十年生死两茫茫，不思量，自难忘。
千里孤坟，无处话凄凉。
纵使相逢应不识，尘满面，鬓如霜。
夜来幽梦忽还乡，小轩窗，正梳妆。
相顾无言，惟有泪千行。
料得年年肠断处，明月夜，短松冈。

Ten years, dead and living dim and draw apart.
I don’t try to remember,
But forgetting is hard.
Lonely grave a thousand miles off,
Cold thoughts, where can I talk them out?

Even if we met, you wouldn’t know me,
Dust on my face,
Hair like frost.

In a dream last night suddenly I was home.
By the window of the little room,
You were combing your hair and making up.

You turned and looked, not speaking,
Only lines of tears coursing down.

Year after year will it break my heart?
The moonlit grave,
The stubby pines.

The poem was written around 1075, when the poet Su Shi dreamed about his wife. He married his wife Wang Fu in 1054 at her fifteen. Unfortunately his wife died in 1065, 11 years after they get married. The next year he took her body back to his homeland Sichuan and buried it in the family graveyard, planting some pines around the tomb. He loved his wife so much and composed this poem to express his feelings.

2. Song of Divination 《卜算子》by Li Zhiyi

我住长江头，
君住长江尾。
日日思君不见君，
共饮长江水。
此水几时休，
此恨何时已。
只愿君心似我心，
定不负相思意。

I live upstream and you downstream,
From night to night of you I dream.
Unlike the stream you are not in view,
Though both we drink from River Blue.
When will the river no more flow？
When will my grief no more grow？
I wish your heart will be like mine，
Then not in vain for you I pine.

Li Zhiyi is one of Su Shi’s disciples and a member of the literati group “Yuanyou poetic style”. This poem surrounds the Yangtze River to express men and women’s sentiment of lovesickness.

Related: Top 10 Chinese Love Songs

3. Beating the Drum《诗经.邶风.击鼓》 (Spring & Autumn Period)

击鼓其镗，踊跃用兵。
土国城漕，我独南行。

从孙子仲，平陈与宋。
不我以归，忧心有忡。

爰居爰处，爰丧其马，
于以求之，于林之下。

死生契阔，与子成说。
执子之手，与子偕老。

于嗟阔兮，不我活兮。
于嗟洵兮，不我信兮。

The drums are booming out;
We’re busy all about,
Building walls high and low.
Alone I southward go.

I follow Sun Zizhong
To fight with Chen and Song.
I cannot homeward go;
My heart is full of woe.

Where stops and stays our force?
I’ve lost my battle horse.
O where can it be found?
It’s buried underground.

“Meet or part, live or die,
We’ve made oath, you and I.
Give me your hand I’ll hold,
And live with me till old!”

With my wife I’ve long parted.
Can I live broken-hearted?
Alas! the oath we swore
Can be fulfilled no more.

This poem expresses homesick mood of officers and soldiers in the battlefields. The verse “Give me your hand I’ll hold, And live with me till old!” has become the best love oath for later generation lovers.

4. God! 《上邪》(Han Dynasty)

我欲与君相知，
长命无绝衰。
山无陵，
江水为竭，
冬雷震震，
夏雨雪 ，
天地合，
乃敢与君绝！

I want to be your love for ever and ever,
Without break or decay.
When the hills are all flat,
The rivers are all dry.
When it thunders in winter,
When it snows in summer
When heaven and earth mingle,
Not till then will I part from you.

The poem comes from Yuefu folk poems of Han Dynasty.  The hero takes an oath that: Even if the seas go dry and rocks crumble, her love remains firm. The poem is a woman`s warm confession to her lover.

5. On And On, Going On And On《行行重行行》 (Eastern Han Dynasty)

行行重行行，
与君生别离。

相去万余里，
各在天一涯。

道路阻且长，
会面安可知。

胡马依北风，
越鸟巢南枝。

相去日已远，
衣带日已缓。

浮云蔽白日，
游子不顾返。

思君令人老，
岁月忽已晚。

弃捐勿复道，
努力加餐饭。

On and on, going on and on,
Away from you to live apart.

Ten thousand miles and more between us,
Each at opposite ends of the sky.

The road I travel is steep and long;
who knows when we meet again?

The Hu horse leans into the north wind,
The bird nests in southern branches.

Day by day our parting grows more distant,
Day by day robe and belt dangle looser.

Shifting clouds block the white sun,
The traveler does not look to return.

Thinking of you makes one old,
Years and months suddenly go by.

Abandoned, I will say no more,
but pluck up strength and eat my fill.

The poem is about solicitude, departure and scourge of war during the turmoil years of the late Eastern Han Dynasty. The poem is full of a woman’s deep concern over her husband in the foreign land.

6. Immortals at the Magpie Bridge《鹊桥仙》by Qin Guan (Song Dynasty)

织云弄巧，
飞星传恨，
银汉迢迢暗度。
金风玉露一相逢，
便胜却人间无数。
柔情似水，
佳期如梦，
忍顾鹊桥归路。
两情若是久长时，
又岂在朝朝暮暮。

Clouds float like works of art,
Stars shoot with grief at heart,
Across the Milky Way the Cowherd meets the Maid.
When Autumn’s Golden Wind embraces Dew of Jade,
All the love scenes on earth, however many, fade.
Their tender love flows like a stream,
Their happy date seems but a dream,
How can they bear a separate homeward way?
If love between both sides can last for aye,
Why need they stay together night and day?

The poem name Immortals at the Magpie Bridge derives from the myth of the sincere love between the Cowboy (Niulang) and the Weaver (Zhinu), who are separated by the Heavenly Queen with the Milky Way and permitted to meet once a year at the bridge formed by the magpies. The poem borrows this traditional love story to express human‘s joys and sorrows.

7.  The Tune of The Wild Geese’s Tomb 《雁邱词》 by Yuan Haowen

问世间情是何物，直教生死相许。
天南地北双飞客，老翅几回寒暑。
欢乐趣，离别苦，就中更有痴儿女。
君应有语，渺万里层云，千山暮雪，只影向谁去。
横汾路，寂寞当年箫鼓，荒烟依旧平楚。
招魂楚些何嗟及，山鬼暗啼风雨。
天也妒，未信与，莺儿燕子俱黄土。
千秋万古，为留待骚人，狂歌痛饮，来访雁邱处。

Among the earthly mortals, I ask: what is Love
That engages couples through life and death?
This flying pair, travelling from south to north,
Had old wings, which survived several summers and winters.
Staying paired is happy,
But to sever, bitter: a trap in itself where devoted lovers
Still long to be trapped. He must have had a thought:
For whom shall I trail a forlorn shadow flying over
Ten thousand miles of grey clouds
And mountains of night snow?
On this road by Fen River, the old pipes and drums
Are gone. Only bleak smoke and vast woods are left.
Vain to evoke the ancient ghosts. The Mountain Spirit
Also wails in vain. Heaven envies the geese,
Not believing they’ll return to dust like orioles
And swallows. There they’ll remain, for a thousand
Autumns, awaiting the poets of later generations
Who are coming, rhapsodizing and quaffing
Just for a view of the wild geese’s tomb.

In the fifth year of Taihe, Yuan Haowen went to Bingzhou to attend an imperial examination. On the way a bird hunter said to him that, he caught a wild goose and killed it. Its partner kept soaring, wailing above and finally killed itself by plunging on the ground. When hearing this touching thing, the poet buried the pair of geese beside the Fen River and named it “The Wild Geese’s Tomb”, he then composed this poem to praise their loyal love.

8. I Was Not When You Were Born, You Were Old When I Was Born.《君生我未生，我生君已老》(Tang Dynasty) by an unknown writer

君生我未生，我生君已老。
君恨我生迟，我恨君生早。
君生我未生，我生君已老。
恨不生同时，日日与君好。
我生君未生，君生我已老。
我离君天涯，君隔我海角。
我生君未生，君生我已老。
化蝶去寻花，夜夜栖芳草。

I was not when you were born,
You were old when I was born.
You regret that I was late born,
I regret that you were early born.
I was not when you were born,
You were old when I was born.
I wished to have been born together,
We could enjoy our time together.
You were not when I was born,
I was old when you were born.
I was so far away from you,
You were so distant from me.
You were not when I was born,
I was old when you were born.
I’d become a flower-seeking butterfly,
And sleep on the fragrant grass every night.

The poem, with plain language, expresses the author`s pity and nostalgia to a much older lover.

9. Though On The Deceased Life《离思》by Yuan Zhen (Tang Dynasty)

曾经沧海难为水，
除却巫山不是云。
取次花丛懒回顾，
半缘修道半缘君。

Insignificant waters become,
When sailings to the oceans abound.
Misty clouds circle mount Wu around,
That’s the best scenery I have ever found.
Many a flower I pass by,
Second looks I bother not to try,
For pilgrimages as a monk I vie,
Still remember the lover I once had.

The Tang Dynasty poet Yuan Zhen composed this poem for his lover Cui Yingying. The line “Insignificant waters become, when sailings to the oceans abound. Misty clouds circle mount Wu around, that’s the best scenery I have ever found.” expresses that the poet will ever fall in love with other woman except for Yingying.

10. Butterflies in Love with Flowers《蝶恋花》by Liu Yong (Northern Song Dynasty)

伫倚危楼风细细，
望极春愁，
黯黯生天际。
草色烟光残照里，
无言谁会凭栏意。
拟把疏狂图一醉，
对酒当歌，
强乐还无味。
衣带渐宽终不悔，
为伊消得人憔悴。

While I lean against the banister of a tall tower,
The breeze gently blows.
As I look into the distance,
The end of Spring arouses melancholy in my mind.
Surrounded by dewy grass at sunset,
I wonder who is able to understand my longing.
I would rather drink to intoxication.
One should sing when one has wine in hand,
But drinking to escape offers no reprieve.
I do not mind that my clothes are getting looser.
My lover is worthy of desire.

The poem cleverly combines lonely feelings in a foreign land with yearning for the lover, showing the hero’s determined character and persistent attitude, successfully portrays the image of a woman who misses her lover far away.