Recited Poems, together with her husband, Su Jian’s Wife

Su Jian ranked high on the imperial exams and returned to Wu. Passing through Chengcheng, he stayed in the tower at the county hall. That night, he dreamed his wife took out red note-paper, cut off several inches, and inscribed a poem, while Jian also took Sichuan paper and wrote a poem on this. [TN: read the poems now] Their poems complete, together where he’d said farewell they lay down beneath a woven mat. After they slept, from under the mat he retrieved her poem, and looking within her rattan box at the red paper, (he saw) the scissors were also in there. When he returned home, his wife was dead and already buried. He asked when she died, and it was the day he dreamed of her in Chengcheng, and when he visited her grave, in all four directions there were many flowering crab-apples. This is also given as an incident of Zhong Fu, with differences.

Jian’s Wife
Chu waters flat just like a mirror—
Circling round, the white birds fly.
In Nanjing, how much earth is there?
One left, and his return’s unknown.

Jian
Returning east to Wu, I’m passing through Chengcheng:
Upon the tower, clear breeze and wine—I’m half-awake.
I think I should go home, for spring’s already ending—
Thousands of crab-apples have already withered away.

与夫同咏诗
作者：苏检妻
〈苏检登第归吴，行及澄城，止于县楼上，梦其妻取红笺，剪数寸题诗，检亦裁蜀笺而赋焉。诗成，俱送所卧席下。及卧，果于席下得其诗，视箧中红笺，亦有剪处。归家，妻死已葬矣。问其死日，乃澄城所梦之日。谒其茔，四面多是海棠花也。一作钟辐事，互异。〉

楚水准如镜，
周回白鸟飞。
金陵几多地，
一去不知归。
〈检妻〉

还吴东去过澄城，
楼上清风酒半醒。
想得到家春已暮，
海棠千树已凋零。
〈检〉

The Wu region corresponds to modern Jiangsu, which includes Nanjing. Chengcheng is in Shaanxi, on the road east from Chang’an. Sichuan was famous for making especially fine decorated papers. The bit about the scissors sounds like there was a superstition about keeping scissors in the same place as paper, but I haven’t found anything relevant. Certainly many cultures have bad-luck taboos against certain actions with scissors.

I’ve no idea why the title says the poems were “recited” when the headnote is explicit that they were written down and implies they weren’t shared.

---L.