Spring Palace Song, Wang Changling (Tang Shi #266)

[lnhammer]

Last night, the breezes opened peach blooms by the well—
Before Lord Weiyang’s chambers the full moon was high.
A Pingyang song and dance: a new concubine found favor—
Spring chill outside: his highness bestowed a brocade robe.

春宫曲
昨夜风开露井桃，
未央前殿月轮高。
平阳歌舞新承宠，
帘外春寒赐锦袍。

The Spring Palace is the Crown Prince’s residence. This uses an incident from the Han dynasty, in which a singer became an imperial concubine and eventually displaced the empress, to criticize the Tang Emperor Xuanzong’s similar elevation of Yang Yuhuan (see previous post). The historical singer was part of the household of the Pingyang Princess, and she was brought to the attention of Han Emperor Wu by the princess’s husband, Weiyang.

Lost in translation: the chill is outside a curtain. I don’t understand the significance of the well—possibly suggestive of a courtyard?

---L.

Comments

[sovay]

Lost in translation: the chill is outside a curtain.

Does the curtain chime with the robe or is it just an architectural detail like "on the other side of the door"?

[lnhammer]

I'm not clear on that. Though what chiming it has would be the setting of the women's quarters, of which the robe would (might?) be one part.

[lnhammer]

Okay, with more experience, the 帘 is important -- and it's better rendered as "screen" than "curtain." It represents the boundary of the imperial household, often specifically the harem. It not so much chimes with the robe as makes it clear that the singer has entered it, i.e. become a concubine.

[sovay]

and it's better rendered as "screen" than "curtain." It represents the boundary of the imperial household, often specifically the harem.

Okay, cool. So you definitely want it explicitly in there.

[lnhammer]

Yup. Current draft:

A Pingyang song and dance, and she received new favor;
Spring chill’s outside his screen—he bestowed a brocade robe.

[sovay]

Spring chill’s outside his screen—he bestowed a brocade robe.

I like that; the possessive is a nice touch.

[lnhammer]

I like how the ambiguity of cause and effect mirrors something of the ambiguity in the original's compression.

(I want to use "one" for "she" but then it reads as too unclear to me, plus loses the she||he of the couplet.)