She brings a broom at dawn to the Golden Palace doorway
And dusts the hall from end to end with her round fan,
And, for all her jade-whiteness, she envies a crow
Whose cold wings are kindled in the Court of the Bright Sun.
Original Poem:
「长信怨」
王昌龄
奉帚平明金殿开， 且将团扇共徘徊。
玉颜不及寒鸦色， 犹带昭阳日影来。
Interpretation:
This poem is about a young girl deprived of her youth, freedom and happiness, in the desolate and lonely palace, alone, lying down to listen to the palace leaks.
In the first two lines, she picks up a broom to clean the dust of the palace at dawn, and wanders around with a fan in her hand when she is bored.
Write the day dawn, the Golden Palace has opened, take up the broom, engaged in cleaning, this is the daily stereotyped work and life; cleaning, nothing else, on the hands of the fan, and wandering, this is a moment of leisure and contemplation.
The last two sentences: beautiful face is not as good as the crow’s posture, it can still bring the sun and shadow of the Zhaoyang Palace to fly.
Crows can fly from the Zhaoyang Hall, so they still have Zhaoyang sun shadow, while they live in the long letter, the king never a look, although there is white as jade face, but not as black as the old crows. What she resents is that she is not only inferior to people of her own kind, but also inferior to a different kind of thing, the small, ugly crow.
This poem is a masterpiece of palace grudge poetry with its subtle diction, strange comparisons, and twisted meanings.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Wang Changling (王昌龄), circa A.D. 690 – 756, was a native of Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. Wang Changling’s poems were mostly about the Border Places, love affairs and farewells, and he was well known during his lifetime. His seven poems are equal to those of Li Bai, and he is known as the “Master of seven lines”.
