Because There’s, Li Shangyin (Tang Shi #300)
Monday, 7 October 2019 09:17![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammerBecause there’s boundless beauty behind this mica screen,
In Phoenix City at winter’s end she dreads spring nights:
For no good reason married to a gold-tortoise husband
Who disappoints their perfumed quilt, attending morning court.
为有
为有云屏无限娇，
凤城寒尽怕春宵。
无端嫁得金龟婿，
辜负香衾事早朝。
(Somehow the notes got lost when I first posted this one.)
The Phoenix City is the capital, and golden tortoises were embroidered on the court robes of high-ranked officials. Spring is dreaded because morning, when he leaves their bed, comes earlier. And yes, that strikingly modernist title is just as fragmentary in the original, though I am not confident I’ve construed it correctly.
(Normally I'd translate the glosses for "phoenix city" and "gold-tortoise" into the text, but because such vivid images and allusions, presented without transition or explanation, are integral to Li’s poetic effect, I'm rendering them literally and resigning myself to more-than-usual notes. I've gone back reworked the previous poem for this, as well as better understanding of what it's doing.)
In Phoenix City at winter’s end she dreads spring nights:
For no good reason married to a gold-tortoise husband
Who disappoints their perfumed quilt, attending morning court.
为有
为有云屏无限娇，
凤城寒尽怕春宵。
无端嫁得金龟婿，
辜负香衾事早朝。
(Somehow the notes got lost when I first posted this one.)
The Phoenix City is the capital, and golden tortoises were embroidered on the court robes of high-ranked officials. Spring is dreaded because morning, when he leaves their bed, comes earlier. And yes, that strikingly modernist title is just as fragmentary in the original, though I am not confident I’ve construed it correctly.
(Normally I'd translate the glosses for "phoenix city" and "gold-tortoise" into the text, but because such vivid images and allusions, presented without transition or explanation, are integral to Li’s poetic effect, I'm rendering them literally and resigning myself to more-than-usual notes. I've gone back reworked the previous poem for this, as well as better understanding of what it's doing.)