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Sent to Director Linghu, Li Shangyin (Tang Shi #299)
Friday, 4 October 2019 13:27The Mount Song clouds and trees of Qin are far apart—
So remote, it took two carp to send your letter.
Don’t ask about my visiting Liang Park, old friend:
I’m lying ill by Mao Tomb in the autumn rains.
寄令狐郎中
嵩云秦树久离居，
双鲤迢迢一纸书。
休问梁园旧宾客，
茂陵秋雨病相如。
Textual issue: My base text ends the second line with 笔 (bǐ), which doesn’t come close to rhyming in any historical pronunciation, giving the phrase “one paper [and] brush.” The overwhelming majority of texts I’ve looked at, including his collected poems, ends instead with 书 (shū), a much better rhyme but giving the more prosaic “a single letter.” The overall sense isn’t affected—paper & brush clearly would stand in for a written message—so because of the form, with much hesitation I’m accepting the common reading. (It may be time to change my base text…)
The recipient (who has one of those rare two-character surnames) was a friend and influential official. Mt Song is near Luoyang and the former kingdom of Qin included Chang’an—so they together stand for those two cities. (They aren’t actually all that far apart.) A carp was a standard symbol for a messenger with a letter (or sometimes the letter itself). Liang Garden was a famous estate in what’s now Shangqiu, Henan, east of Luoyang, and Mao Tomb is that of Han Emperor Wu, about 25 miles west of Chang’an. The illness named is one with symptoms similar to diabetes.
—L.
So remote, it took two carp to send your letter.
Don’t ask about my visiting Liang Park, old friend:
I’m lying ill by Mao Tomb in the autumn rains.
寄令狐郎中
嵩云秦树久离居，
双鲤迢迢一纸书。
休问梁园旧宾客，
茂陵秋雨病相如。
Textual issue: My base text ends the second line with 笔 (bǐ), which doesn’t come close to rhyming in any historical pronunciation, giving the phrase “one paper [and] brush.” The overwhelming majority of texts I’ve looked at, including his collected poems, ends instead with 书 (shū), a much better rhyme but giving the more prosaic “a single letter.” The overall sense isn’t affected—paper & brush clearly would stand in for a written message—so because of the form, with much hesitation I’m accepting the common reading. (It may be time to change my base text…)
The recipient (who has one of those rare two-character surnames) was a friend and influential official. Mt Song is near Luoyang and the former kingdom of Qin included Chang’an—so they together stand for those two cities. (They aren’t actually all that far apart.) A carp was a standard symbol for a messenger with a letter (or sometimes the letter itself). Liang Garden was a famous estate in what’s now Shangqiu, Henan, east of Luoyang, and Mao Tomb is that of Han Emperor Wu, about 25 miles west of Chang’an. The illness named is one with symptoms similar to diabetes.
—L.