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Ouyang Xiu was a self-taught polymath who became a successful statesman, historian and essayist as well as a poet.
He wrote both shi and ci poems, and was one of the pioneers of the latter as a vehicle for serious poetry. He cultivated an avuncular persona, giving himself the title of "The Old Drunkard". The following ten poems are a series describing the West Lake of Hangzhou, all written to the tune "Picking Mulberries". They are titled below by the first phrase of the first line. Each poem indexed below appears in characters, pinyin, and literal and literary English translation; alternatively, the English translations are collected on one page here. |