I
A faint phoenix-tail gauze, fragrant and doubled,
Lines your green canopy, closed for the night…
Will your shy face peer round a moon-shaped fan,
And your voice be heard hushing the rattle of my carriage?
It is quiet and quiet where your gold lamp dies,
How far can a pomegranate-blossom whisper?
…I will tether my horse to a river willow
And wait for the will of the southwest wind.
Original Poem:
「无题二首 之一」
李商隐
凤尾香罗薄几重，碧文圆顶夜深缝。
扇裁月魄羞难掩，车走雷声语未通。
曾是寂寥金烬暗，断无消息石榴红。
斑骓只系垂杨岸，何处西南待好风？
Interpretation:
This poem expresses the love for a woman in a cryptic tone.
It seems to be a chance encounter, love at first sight, and thereafter unforgettable, looking forward to reunion. A woman is sewing curtains under the lamp late at night: silk roses embroidered with exquisite phoenix-tail patterns, thin and soft, like smoke and mist, emitting a gust of fragrance, are cut into heavy draperies; under the orange light, turquoise dome tents with floral motifs are being sewn in the quiet of the late night. The person with the flying needle must have a pair of dexterous hands, and the figure busy in the depths of the night is so focused and virtuous. The poet did not write about the person who sewed the tent, but let us feel that the poet is with good memories in the imagination of the woman’s every move.
Recall and the woman’s encounter: the two met on the street by chance, the four eyes, a moment to rub out the sparks of the soul, the woman blushed and smiled, hastened to the fan to cover the face, although covered with a bright moon face, but can not hide the shyness. Between the gaze, the words have not yet passed, the car has been rushed past the beautiful people, the sound of reeling car gradually far away. This should be the feeling of love at first sight, although just a glimpse, but the woman’s beautiful face, shy demeanour, but deeply imprinted in the poet’s mind, and never forget. The poet may think that the woman also have the same feeling, so will appear in the first line of that kind of imagination.
The poet’s later feelings: once for her, in the long night, alone, guarding the metal candlestick, looking at the dim lights flickering in the night, the tide of loneliness flooded the body and mind, but she is “no news”. Time passes, the pomegranate tree has blossomed red flowers, the person is still no news, let a person feel infinite melancholy.
He is in love with her, Zhui Zhui only want to tie under the willow tree, an abstract and subtle feelings become concrete and palpable, where there is a good wind blowing, so that the people who love each other to achieve their wishes? There is an unthinkable anguish here, but also a hidden hope.
The poem is very subtle, and there are many jumps between objects, so there are quite a lot of sayings. However, the multi-meaning of the poem does not affect the artistic power of the poem. The sincerity and depth of the emotion, the delicacy and image of the expression, and the beauty of the words make this section of inexplicable feelings euphemistic and touching.
II
There are many curtains in your care-free house,
Where rapture lasts the whole night long.
...What are the lives of angels but dreams
If they take no lovers into their rooms?
...Storms are ravishing the nut-horns,
Moon-dew sweetening cinnamon-leaves -
I know well enough naught can come of this union,
Yet how it serves to ease my heart!
Original Poem:
「无题二首 之二」
李商隐
重帷深下莫愁堂，卧后清宵细细长。
神女生涯原是梦，小姑居处本无郎。
风波不信菱枝弱，月露谁叫桂叶香。
直道相思了无益，未妨惆怅是清狂。
Interpretation:
This poem expresses the dream-like feelings of a woman living alone in a boudoir, which vaguely conveys the poet’s personal feelings about her life.
The boudoir with layers of curtains hanging low is deep and quiet; the night is deep, but the owner of the boudoir goes to bed with a heavy heart, tossing and turning, and the long, bleak night is so long. Why was she so slow to sleep? What is she thinking about? The poem says nothing, leaving it to the reader’s imagination.
Is she sleepless at night? Like the Goddess of Wushan, she has romantic encounters and lives a life of love, but it turns out to be just a dream. As to whether this dream is her yearning, or was once the Wushan clouds and rain, has become dreamlike in the passage of time, we have no way to know. But the status quo is obvious, she is still like the little nun of Qingxi, alone and without a groom.
Then to objective things to insinuate the subjective feelings: diamond born in the water, the wind blew, the waves surge, stirring the diamond leaves flying, diamond branch want to fold; diamond branch is weak, and the wind storm “do not believe”, does it mean that some of the things as slender as a diamond branch, is not able to withstand the waves of life, even if “do not believe! “, to go against the trend, is ultimately in vain. Dewdrops under the moon, who will nourish the laurel leaves, so that they spit out the fragrance of the fragrance, revealing the unreliable and unsupported by the ghostly resentment.
Imagery specific and distinct, but the symbolism is quite obscure, may be lyrical that woman in the long night sleepless lament, may be implying the heroine’s misfortune, may be the poet’s self-injury to his own life, the history of the argument is quite a lot.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Li Shangyin (李商隐), 813-858 AD, was a great poet of the late Tang Dynasty. His poems were on a par with those of Du Mu, and he was known as “Little Li Du”. Li Shangyin was a native of Qinyang, Jiaozuo City, Henan Province. When he was a teenager, he lost his father at the age of nine, and was called “Zheshui East and West, half a century of wandering”.
