Miscellaneous Poem, Wang Wei (Tang Shi #228)
Tuesday, 21 May 2019 09:17![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammerYou yourself came from my hometown
And so should know my hometown’s state:
The day you came to my silk window,
Did the cold plum wear its blossoms yet?
杂诗
君自故乡来，
应知故乡事。
来日绮窗前，
寒梅着花未。
I’ve mentioned before how the Kokinshu created the Japanese ideal of sakura as the quintessential spring flower, replacing the ideal inherited from China of the early plum. Well, here we have the latter in action. Regular meter, yay, and a near-miss rhyme. (Arguments that this is okay because shì and mèi are near misses hold no water, because of sound changes over the centuries—at the time, it was a regular rhyme.)
—L.
And so should know my hometown’s state:
The day you came to my silk window,
Did the cold plum wear its blossoms yet?
杂诗
君自故乡来，
应知故乡事。
来日绮窗前，
寒梅着花未。
I’ve mentioned before how the Kokinshu created the Japanese ideal of sakura as the quintessential spring flower, replacing the ideal inherited from China of the early plum. Well, here we have the latter in action. Regular meter, yay, and a near-miss rhyme. (Arguments that this is okay because shì and mèi are near misses hold no water, because of sound changes over the centuries—at the time, it was a regular rhyme.)
—L.