Since I married the merchant of Ch'ut'ang
He has failed each day to keep his word.
Had I thought how regular the tide is,
I might rather have chosen a riverboy.
Original Poem:
「江南曲」
李益
嫁得瞿塘贾，朝朝误妾期。
早知潮有信，嫁与弄潮儿。
Interpretation:
This is a poem on the subject of bosom complaint, which is written in a white style to express the heart of a merchant woman.
The first two lines: I really regret marrying a merchant woman in Qutang, who delays the good time of meeting every day.
The heroine laments that she is married to a merchant woman and cannot spend time with her husband. It may be that on several occasions, her husband had promised to go home, but ended up not returning on the wrong date, causing her to wait in vain at the mouth of the river, always returning disappointed.
The last two lines: If I had known that the tide would rise and fall so faithfully, I would have been better off marrying a tide husband.
If she had known that the tide would rise and fall, she should have married the man who makes the tide. In this way, life may be a little more difficult, but can always rely on. This young woman did not really want to remarry, but just hurt herself in the extreme bitterness, thought about it, regretted it, and made a kind of historical assumption.
The success of this poem lies in the fact that it seems to be absurd and unreasonable, but it truly and frankly expresses the grievances of a young woman who stays alone in an empty room, and the process of inner activities from hope to grudge and from grudge to remorse is just in line with the inner world of the businesswoman in the poem.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Li Yi (李益), 748-829 AD, a native of Wuwei in Gansu Province, was one of the “Ten Scholarly Men of the Dali Dynasty”, and is best known for his works on the border and the Plateau, especially for his seven-character stanzas. His poems had a harmonious rhythm and were sung by musicians at that time.
