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Cold Food Day, Han Hong (Tang Shi #274)
Thursday, 25 July 2019 12:30A city spring: there’s nowhere without flowers flying—
Cold Food: the east wind blows court willow branches askew.
At dusk, the great Han palace passes out wax/ candles—
Light smoke disperses, entering five noble houses.
寒食
春城无处不飞花，
寒食东风御柳斜。
日暮汉宫传蜡烛，
轻烟散入五侯家。
This needs some background. In Tang observances, the day before the early April Qingming, or Tomb-Sweeping, Festival was Cold Food Day: all fires were put out and everyone ate cold food. Decorations included willows branches for the departed, put over doorways—the ones here are inside the imperial palace. When the observance was over, a fire was kindled in the palace or a local lord’s manor and propagated to other households by candles or lanterns.
So with that unpacked, there’s an another layer: the poem refers to an incident during the eastern Han Dynasty when five palace eunuchs were ennobled on the same day, by way of safely satirizing contemporary corruption.
Even aside from all the glossing needed, the language is especially compressed in this one. This is also the first double negative I’ve met in a classical poem.
—L.
Cold Food: the east wind blows court willow branches askew.
At dusk, the great Han palace passes out wax/ candles—
Light smoke disperses, entering five noble houses.
寒食
春城无处不飞花，
寒食东风御柳斜。
日暮汉宫传蜡烛，
轻烟散入五侯家。
This needs some background. In Tang observances, the day before the early April Qingming, or Tomb-Sweeping, Festival was Cold Food Day: all fires were put out and everyone ate cold food. Decorations included willows branches for the departed, put over doorways—the ones here are inside the imperial palace. When the observance was over, a fire was kindled in the palace or a local lord’s manor and propagated to other households by candles or lanterns.
So with that unpacked, there’s an another layer: the poem refers to an incident during the eastern Han Dynasty when five palace eunuchs were ennobled on the same day, by way of safely satirizing contemporary corruption.
Even aside from all the glossing needed, the language is especially compressed in this one. This is also the first double negative I’ve met in a classical poem.
—L.