Gone is the guest from the Chamber of Rank,
And petals, confused in my little garden,
Zigzagging down my crooked path,
Escort like dancers the setting sun.
Oh, how can I bear to sweep them away?
To a sad-eyed watcher they never return.
Heart's fragrance is spent with the ending of spring
And nothing left but a tear-stained robe.
Original Poem:
「落花」
李商隐
高阁客竟去， 小园花乱飞。
参差连曲陌， 迢递送斜晖。
肠断未忍扫， 眼穿仍欲归。
芳心向春尽， 所得是沾衣。
Interpretation:
This is a poem about falling flowers, written in 846 A.D. By this time, the poet had already been cold-shouldered by the Niu Party for marrying the daughter of Wang Maoyuan of the Li Party. The poet’s deep regret for the falling flowers is also attached to a sigh of regret for his own life.
The guest who lives in a high building unexpectedly leaves, and in the small garden, the flowers fly about and the fallen flowers are a riot of colours. Guests of the departure of the poet’s shock, which may be the cause of the poet’s lingering sadness, hurt spring to the depths of the cause. Fading petals fluttering, fluttering in the sky, disorientation of the flower shadow and the winding path in the garden as a whole, long and steady, until send away the setting sun. This is a picturesque, like a complaint like tears of the twilight of spring picture, beautiful and sad.
Seeing the flowers drifting, has been chopped up, can not bear to sweep away the petals on the ground; looking forward to the spring to stay, spring still want to go back. The poet connects the end of flowers with his personal feelings about life, and issues a sad and disappointing sigh.
This poem is a mixture of scenes, melancholy and disappointment, and elegance.
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”.
