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 · 重帷深下莫愁堂」
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 dreamlike feelings of a woman who lives alone in a boudoir, which vaguely conveys the poet’s personal feelings about her life.
In the first two lines, the curtains hang deep in the quiet hall; lying alone on the bed, she remembers the past and feels the long quiet night.
Layers and layers of curtains hanging low in the boudoir, deep and quiet; late at night, the owner of the boudoir went to bed, but heavy hearted, tossing and turning, the long and bleak night how long it is. Why was she so slow to sleep? What is she thinking about? The poem says nothing, leaving it to the reader’s imagination.
The third and fourth lines: The witch mountain goddess met the king of Chu, but it turned out to be just a dream; the residence of the little nun in Qingxi, she was alone without a groom.
Is she sleepless for long nights? To have romantic encounters and live a life of love as the goddess of Wushan turns out to be just a dream. As to whether this dream is her yearning, or once the Wushan clouds and rain, has become dreamlike in the passage of time, we have no way of knowing. But the status quo is obvious, she is still like the little nun of Qingxi, alone and without a groom.
The fifth and sixth sentences: the storm does not believe that the diamond branch is soft and weak, and it is inclined to be destroyed; like the osmanthus leaves with fragrant and beautiful qualities, but there is no moon dew to moisturize them to make them fragrant.
Then to objective things to insinuate the subjective feelings: diamond born in the water, the wind blew, the waves surge, provoked 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 delicate as the diamond branch, is not able to withstand the waves of life, even if “do not believe”, to go against the tide. ”, to go against the trend, is ultimately in vain. Dewdrops under the moon, who will moisturize the laurel leaves, so that they spit out the fragrance of the fragrance, revealing no one to rely on, no support for the ghostly resentment.
The last two sentences: even if the love of all no good, but this melancholy heart, or is considered to be infatuation.
Directly expresses the feelings: even if the lovesickness is not beneficial, still does not prevent the melancholy feelings for the lovesickness persistent, wild. Knowing that it is useless to think about each other but being disappointed, it is already deep in love, engraved in the heart, and can’t be stopped.
The whole poem is rich in connotation, euphemistic in wording, subtle in technique, and far-reaching in meaning.
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”.
