She Sings an Old Song

A lady of the palace these twenty years,
She has lived here a thousand miles from her home -
Yet ask her for this song and, with the first few words of it,
See how she tries to hold back her tears. 

Original Poem:

「何满子」
故国三千里，深宫二十年。
一声何满子，双泪落君前。

Interpretation:

According to the “Chronicle of Tang Poetry” compiled by Ji Yougong in the Southern Song Dynasty, there was a famous female singer named He Manzi in the harem of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. For some unknown reason, she offended the emperor and was sentenced to death. Before the execution, the officer asked her if she had any request. As a singer, she wanted to sing one more song before she said goodbye to the world.

The horrified officer reported this vision to the emperor, and Tang Xuanzong was moved by her sorrowful song, sighed, and commuted her to a suspended death sentence.

The story of this songstress quickly spread throughout the palace of the Tang Dynasty, leading the world to lament and the poets Yuan Zhen, Bai Juyi, Du Mu, etc. to write poems for her, but only this poem is the most famous, which means, “I have been singing in your royal palace for more than twenty years, and now I am thousands of miles away from my homeland without my family. Now I, He Manzi, can only sing a sad song to bid farewell to the human world and spill my two hot tears in front of you.

When this poem came out, not only He Manzi shed tears, but also the streets and alleys of Chang’an were filled with people running in tears for He Manzi’s sad and angry song.

About Author:

Zhang Hu (张祜, 785-849 A.D.) was a poet from Qinghe in the Tang Dynasty, he wrote more than a thousand poems in total. In his early years, he lived in Gusu, but in the middle of Changqing, he was not recommended by Linghu Chu. He was rejected by Yuan Zhen, so he went to Huainan and lived in seclusion in Danyang Qu’a. During his life, Zhang Hu made remarkable achievements in poetry. Zhang Hu was named after his poem “Three thousand miles from his homeland, twenty years in the deep palace”, and his 349 poems are included in The Complete Tang Poems.

Poem translator:

Kiang Kanghu