u/Brief_Highlight_8549

Hi Shufa community!

Was wondering if I could get some much appreciated help confirming/correcting translations for some of these poems? I found out recently that my gong gong (who is quite old now) used to write poems/practice calligraphy. It's a longer story of how I never knew but I am no longer able to talk with him about his work and feel like there is much to know about him that he rarely shared with us.

Any translating help would be helpful and much appreciated! A translation of the actual letters too would be amazing, my chinese is not so good.

Top poem:

Red leaves carry an immortal grace,

Deep autumn stirs my thoughts,

I have yet to carve my ambitions into stone,

Yet I gaze admiringly at the great Du Fu’s spirit,

The eye stretches far over surging waves,

Mist and smoke rise and thin around me,

This life — its misty feelings dispersing,

In the end, the ambitions of my youth unfulfilled…

Written in the autumn of Jiashen, moved by the sight of maple leaves, as a commemoration.

Bottom poem:

A single ray of light released,

Autumn brings purple swallows and birds,

Bells toll, birds call,

The land, rivers and mountains stand firm,

Green grass — all worries forgotten,

The lake’s colours, bound by fate,

Dongting Lake…

In the Yichou year, at this lakeside in Guangzhou/Canada, moved by the green colour of the lake, I write this quietly to console my longing for home. Autumn.

Let me know what you guys think! Thank you again.