Sorrow of Separation and In Memoriam - Li Qingzhao
Tuesday poetic musings #7
This week I'm having a Chinese culture immersion.
Li Qingzhao (1084 – ca. 1155), a writer who lived during the Song Dynasty (960-1279), is considered one of the greatest poets in Chinese history. She wrote primarily ci poetry, a song form.
She is known as a master of the Wanyue style and remains an inspiration for many authors to this day. Her poems portray the intense changes her live and country underwent — from blissful childhood and love to trauma and grief due to war and widowhood.
She managed to achieve a high degree of success despite the constraints of a patriarchal and feudalistic society. Sadly, only fragments of her work survive. We probably know more about what others thought of her than her writing itself.
I’m currently waiting for a new edition of her complete poems and fragments (it should be published before march, 2025).
In the meantime, let’s enjoy Jiaosheng Wang translation.
Tune: “A Sprig of Plum Blossom”
Sorrow of Separation
.
The lotus has wilted, only a faint perfume remains;
On the bamboo mat there’s a touch of autumn chill.
Softly I take off my silk dress
And step on board my orchid skiff alone.
Who is sending me the letter of brocade
From beyond the clouds?
When the wild geese1 return
The moon will be flooding the West Chamber.
.
Flowers fall and drift away,
Water glides on,
After their nature.
Our yearning is the sort
Both sides far apart endure —
A melancholy feeling there's no resisting.
As soon as it leaves the eyebrows
It surges up in the breast.2
Tune: "A Southern Song"
In Memoriam
.
In Heaven the Milky Way turns,
On Earth all curtains hang low.
A chill steals on to my pillow-mat
Damp with tears.
I sit up to unloosen my silk robe,
And idly ask myself:
"What hour of night is it?"
.
The kingfisher-embroidered lotus-pods seem small,
The gold-stitched lotus leaves are sparse.
The same weather, the same clothes,
As of old.
Only my feelings are quite other
Than those of old times.
Do you know any other Chinese poets? I'm taking recommendations.
Translator’s note: Wild geese were thought to be bearers of letters, especially love messages, because of their regular migrations from north to south and vice versa.
Translator’s note: The original is a famous couplet that serves as a natural sequel to the foregoing three lines.