Out go the great red wedding-chamber candles. Tomorrow in state the bride faces your parents. She has finished preparing; she asks of you meekly Whether her eyebrows are painted in fashion.
Original Poem:
「近试上张籍水部」
洞房昨夜停红烛，待晓堂前拜舅姑。
妆罢低声问夫婿，画眉深浅入时无。
Interpretation:
This poem was written by Zhu Qingyu on the eve of the entrance examination of the Tang Emperor Jingzong Baoli (825-827). In the Tang Dynasty, it was popular for scholars to present their poems to celebrities for praise and introduction to the Minister of the Ministry of Rites, who was in charge of the examination, before they sat for the entrance examination. The object of Zhu Qingyu’s poem was Zhang Ji, who was the official water minister.
In this poem, the poet compares himself to a new bride. According to the wedding custom at that time, the bride was married on the first night and needed to meet her in-laws early the next morning. The poet does not describe this plainly, but analyzes the bride’s psychology in depth. The red candle was lit all night long, the bride got up early, in a hazy morning sun, borrowed the light of the candle that had not yet burned out, put on makeup. As the obeisance and curtsy was a great event, that was why she treated it so respectfully. However, she still felt unsure of herself. Was she dressed in a fashionable way, and would her in-laws like it? The bride is so shy that she does not dare to ask out loud, but after she has finished her makeup, she lowers her head and softly asks her husband and son-in-law if her makeup is appropriate.
This kind of writing style is really refined, carved into the subtle, the bride shy but meticulous, cautious psychological account very clearly.
Zhu Qingyu, whose date of birth and death is not known, was named Kejiu, with the word line, and also the word Qingxu, a native of Yuezhou (present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province), who was educated by Zhang Ji, and was enrolled in the first grade of the Bao Li Jinshi, and was appointed as a school scholar in the Secretarial Province. His poems were fresh in diction and meticulous in style.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
