Sunday, 28 August 2022

lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)
A phoenix cries, orchids are very red—
I look outside, east of the capital.
This “face-paint” perspires in the slanting light,
My fragrant robes caught one by one in the breeze.
A feeling comes before I am aware—
Halting in the shadows: five flowery steeds.

玉台体 之一
鸾啼兰已红,
见出凤城东。
粉汗宜斜日,
衣香逐上风。
情来不自觉,
暗驻五花骢。

A “jade terrace” ordinarily means the quarters of an upper-class woman; here, however, it’s referring to a genre of semi-erotic poetry collected in the mid-6th century anthology New Songs from the Jade Terrace—see here for a couple examples.

This is a set of imitations from the late 8th century, one of which I previously translated as 3TP #243. Back when I did that, I’d no idea it was part of a set, and since I liked that poem and was looking for a palate-cleanser of something easier than Du Fu, I pounced. Even though, yes, they’re written by a late Tang poet imitating a once-living Southern Dynasties style, but as I said, I was looking for easy and different.

To be explicit, these are semi-erotic poems written by a man from a patriarchal culture, so CW: very male-gaze. But at least it’s different from 3TP’s restricted range and I hope to get something fun out of it.

Specific for this poem: a carriage pulled by a five-horse team is a perquisite of a high official, who has stopped to visit this courtesan on the sly at sunset. More literally, her layers of clothing are “lifted” up. Tricky bit: there are a couple fabulous Chinese birds that can, in most situations, be translated as “phoenix.” One place they cannot is when more than one are named, as here: 鸾 (luán) and 凤 (fèng). The second is part of an elegant sobriquet for the capital, so I went for clarity instead of colorful. That said, one text had 莺 (yīng) “oriole” instead of the very similar 鸾, which is really tempting reading to accept (“Orioles sing, orchids are very red— / I look outside, east of Phoenix City”).

ETA: After much thought, I'm accepting the "oriole" reading -- it's much more consonant with the realistic sensual details of the rest of the poem.

---L.

About

Warning: contents contain line-breaks.

As language practice, I like to translate poetry. My current project is Chinese, with practice focused on Tang Dynasty poetry. Previously this was classical Japanese, most recently working through the Kokinshu anthology (archived here). Suggestions, corrections, and questions always welcome.

There's also original pomes in the journal archives.

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