Cut it, it doesn’t sever;

Sort it, as entangled as ever

It is a great sorrow to part,

Creating an entirely different feeling in my heart !

—Li Yu, Joy in Seeing Each Other. Trans. Frank C. Yue.

Faraway lies that star, the Oxherd;

she sparkles, the Maid in the River of Stars,

She stretches her pale and delicate hand,

clacking, she whiles away time with the shuttle.

A day is spent and her weaving not done,

as her tears fall down like the rain.

The River of Stars is shallow and clear,

nor are they so very far apart.

But across that bright and brimming stream,

she gazes with longing and cannot speak.

— “Faraway lies that star”. Nineteen Old Poems. Trans. Stephen Owen.