The stars of last night and the wind of last night
Are west of the Painted Chamber and east of Cinnamon Hall.
...Though I have for my body no wings like those of the bright-coloured phoenix,
Yet I feel the harmonious heart-beat of the Sacred Unicorn.
Across the spring-wine, while it warms me, I prompt you how to bet
Where, group by group, we are throwing dice in the light of a crimson lamp;
Till the rolling of a drum, alas, calls me to my duties
And I mount my horse and ride away, like a water-plant cut adrift.
Original Poem:
「无题二首 · 其一」
李商隐
昨夜星辰昨夜风，画楼西畔桂堂东。
身无彩凤双飞翼，心有灵犀一点通。
隔座送钩春酒暖，分曹射覆蜡灯红。
嗟余听鼓应官去，走马兰台类转蓬。
Interpretation:
Most of Li Shangyin’s Unnamed poems are about erotic love. This poem is a love poem that expresses the complex and subtle feelings of love and acquaintance between a man and a woman and yet separation and longing for each other.
The night is low, the stars are twinkling, and the wind is cool. A night of spring intoxication is haunted by the warmth of serenity and romance. The western bank of the exquisitely painted building, the eastern side of the Gui Mu Hall. The poet did not even write a clear location, but only used the surroundings to set the scene. In such a wonderful moment, charming environment in what happened in the story, the poet is only alone in the heart of the memory, we can not help but for the poem to show the flavour touched.
The poet has been separated from the person of his choice in two sets of children, wistfulness, the pain of lovesickness: I hate their bodies do not have colourful phoenix-like wings, can fly to the side of the love of his life; each other’s hearts are like a spiritual rhinoceros horn, as well as the interest in each other. There is sweetness in pain, loneliness in expectation, the anguish of lovesickness and the gratification of heart-to-heart are fused together, portraying the complex and subtle state of mind of the kind of lovers who are deeply in love but can’t be together for long in a meticulous and exquisite way.
The poet and the beautiful woman both attended a party. At the banquet, people played the game of sending hooks across the table and shooting overlays in groups, mingling with each other, warming up with wine and wine, and having a good time. Yesterday’s laughter still echoes in our ears, and today’s banquet may still be going on, but there is no longer a poet. The warmth of the banquet set off the poet’s loneliness, rather like “the lively is theirs, and I have nothing” of the bleak.
It is a pity that I have to go on duty when I hear the sound of the drums announcing the break of dawn, and that I have to go in and out of the secretarial department as if I were fluffy grass fluttering in the wind. This line should explain the reason for leaving the beautiful woman, and at the same time reveals the boredom of the duty, implying the sentiment of drifting in the world.
The whole poem is based on psychological activities, and the poet’s feelings are delicate and genuine, depicting a confusing but inseparable emotion that can be understood but not conveyed.
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”.
