Revealed to Song Shanwei, Ghost of an Unnamed Woman

Moon’s setting through three trunks of trees,
Sun’s shining in the ninefold sky.
The worthy’s nighttime banquet ends:
His brief distinction’s paid with years.

示宋善威
作者：无名女鬼
月落三株树，
日映九重天。
良夜欢宴罢，
暂别庚申年。

This ghost poem (from CTP ch866) doesn’t have a headnote, darn it, though one site had basic info on Song Shanwei: he was from Hengshui, southern Hebei, and at one point was the military superintendent of a nearby county. His military exploits made it into one of the chronicles (which I’m not looking up) and he died in 720.

This … might be necromancy in the strict definition of having the dead foretell the future? “Revealed” certainly suggests it—and Song’s brief bio calls this a 谶 (chèn), “prophecy/omen.” That last line is, like many oracles, not easy to grasp. The best I’ve come up with is a hint that bright candles burn briefly, and his time is coming. Consider this a tentative translation at best.

For your amusement, calligraphy of the last two lines. (This site is fun—try pasting a line from any of these ghost poems into the box at the top.)

---L.