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A young wife of the Lu’s in a tulip-scented hall
Where pairs of swallows perch in rafters of tortoiseshell:
Ninth Month, cold washing-stones are urging on the leaves.
Ten years in garrison—she thinks of far Liaoyang.
From north of White-Wolf River, news and letters have stopped—
South of Red Phoenix City, autumn nights are long.
Who wants her to be anxious—alone, not seeing him?
Let the bright moon shine once more on her flowing-yellow robes.
古意呈补阙乔知之
卢家少妇郁金香，
海燕双栖玳瑁梁。
九月寒砧催木叶，
十年征戍忆辽阳。
白狼河北音书断，
丹凤城南秋夜长。
谁为含愁独不见，
更教明月照流黄。
So, okay, this is an 8-line poem of 7-character lines and my base text puts it in Part 6, which is 7-character regulated verse … however, comma, it is not that but rather a folk-song-style poem that for Some Reason was placed here instead of with the rest of the 7-character yuefu of Part 4. (Will I ever get over this text’s handling of yuefu? NO. We all need our grumptions. Don’t judge me.) I mean, okay, yes, there’s the antithetical middle couplets, but that’s not enough to make the form.
This is also (probably better) known as “Alone, Not Seeing Him.” Liaoyang and White-Wolf (Bailang) River were on the far northeastern frontier, in modern Liaoning Province, while Red Phoenix City is Chang’an (one of the southern city gates was Red Phoenix Gate). Added in translation: “far” to clarify where the grass-widow isn’t and “robes” to clarify that flowing-yellow is a cloth pattern. The swallows are literally “sea swallows,” which in Modern Mandarin is the name for stormy petrels, who do not roost inside a wealthy house in Shaanxi, so I’m taking the “sea” part to be fanciful/ornamental and lost it in translation.
—L.
Where pairs of swallows perch in rafters of tortoiseshell:
Ninth Month, cold washing-stones are urging on the leaves.
Ten years in garrison—she thinks of far Liaoyang.
From north of White-Wolf River, news and letters have stopped—
South of Red Phoenix City, autumn nights are long.
Who wants her to be anxious—alone, not seeing him?
Let the bright moon shine once more on her flowing-yellow robes.
古意呈补阙乔知之
卢家少妇郁金香，
海燕双栖玳瑁梁。
九月寒砧催木叶，
十年征戍忆辽阳。
白狼河北音书断，
丹凤城南秋夜长。
谁为含愁独不见，
更教明月照流黄。
So, okay, this is an 8-line poem of 7-character lines and my base text puts it in Part 6, which is 7-character regulated verse … however, comma, it is not that but rather a folk-song-style poem that for Some Reason was placed here instead of with the rest of the 7-character yuefu of Part 4. (Will I ever get over this text’s handling of yuefu? NO. We all need our grumptions. Don’t judge me.) I mean, okay, yes, there’s the antithetical middle couplets, but that’s not enough to make the form.
This is also (probably better) known as “Alone, Not Seeing Him.” Liaoyang and White-Wolf (Bailang) River were on the far northeastern frontier, in modern Liaoning Province, while Red Phoenix City is Chang’an (one of the southern city gates was Red Phoenix Gate). Added in translation: “far” to clarify where the grass-widow isn’t and “robes” to clarify that flowing-yellow is a cloth pattern. The swallows are literally “sea swallows,” which in Modern Mandarin is the name for stormy petrels, who do not roost inside a wealthy house in Shaanxi, so I’m taking the “sea” part to be fanciful/ornamental and lost it in translation.
—L.