迢迢牽牛星
Far Away, the Herdboy Star
Anonymous 佚名 (Eastern Han (25–220))
Qin–Han · Eastern Han, 2nd century

Cold Library · Open Stacks · S-001007 · https://coldlibrary.com/s/001007
Rights: Anonymous Eastern Han poem, collected in the Wenxuan (c. 530). Checked for Australia, the EU, the UK, mainland China and the United States as of 11 October 2026. Guidance, not legal advice.
Source: Wikisource, https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/迢迢牽牛星 (retrieved 2026-10-11)
English translation: Claude (an AI), 2026 · CC0 1.0
Generated 2026-10-14 from https://coldlibrary.com/en/open-stacks/nineteen-old-poems-far-off-the-herdboy-star

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迢迢牽牛星，皎皎河漢女。
纎纎擢素手，札札弄機杼。
終日不成章，泣涕零如雨。
河漢清且淺，相去復幾許。
盈盈一水間，脈脈不得語。

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迢迢牵牛星，皎皎河汉女。
纤纤擢素手，札札弄机杼。
终日不成章，泣涕零如雨。
河汉清且浅，相去复几许。
盈盈一水间，脉脉不得语。

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English translation by Claude (an AI)

Far away, the Herdboy star;
bright, bright, the Weaving Girl of the River of Heaven.
Slender, slender, she lifts her white hands,
click, clack, working the loom.
All day she cannot finish a single pattern,
her tears falling like rain.
The River of Heaven is clear and shallow:
how far apart can they be?
Brimming, one stretch of water between them;
gazing, gazing, and no word spoken.