Poem of Hidden Resentment, A Woman of Anyi Lane

In Upper Dou’an neighborhood was the Lu family’s house, which people commonly called Wicked House. Advanced Scholar Zang Xia rented lodgings there. While sleeping during the day, he had a sudden nightmare in which he saw a married woman in a green skirt and red sleeves of dainty carriage and graceful waist, like a flower in the mist, who cried many tears and said, “Hear this one’s lines of Hidden Resentment.” A long time later, he woke up.

I now divine above the gorge it’s sunny—
This autumn river, wind and waves are many.
Alone in Baling on a rainy night,
A slash in the gut, hearing Mulan’s song.

幽恨诗
作者：安邑坊女
〈上都安邑坊陆氏宅，人常谓为凶宅。有进士臧夏，僦居其中。昼寝，忽梦魇，见一女人，绿裙红袖，弱质纤腰，如雾濛花，收泪而云：“听妾一篇幽恨之句。”良久方寤。〉
卜得上峡日，
秋江风浪多。
巴陵一夜雨，
肠断木兰歌。

Back to another ghost poem from chapter 866 of Complete Tang Poems. It was already in my queue of things to translate but I hadn’t known it was a ghost poem, so that bumped it up. Also, since my previous ghost poem, I found a CTP text that has the editorial headnotes to the poems IOW context. (The headnote of that ‘previous’ significantly changed how I read it.)

Evidence that Mulan has represented freedom for women for a lonnnng time. Apparently dream visitations were considered haints (this poem is also from this chapter). An advanced scholar is someone who has passed the triennial imperial exams. Anyi Lane was in Baling, which is now part of Yueyang, Hunan, and the woman is described as a wealthy man’s wife or concubine, who would have spent most of her adult life sequestered in her husband’s house.

(Is it time to dip into CTP ch 797-805, poems by non-royal women? I think it is. But I got a dozen more ghost poems to get through first. Bring it!)

---L.