Song of Lasting Regret lines 103-108, Bai Juyi (Tang Shi #71)

[lnhammer]

Their love and passion within Zhaoyang Hall is gone—
The days and months inside of Penglai Palace are long.
Turning her head to look down at the human realm,
She doesn’t see Chang’an, but only dust and fog.
To show her affection she can only offer keepsakes,
Sending him off with an inlaid box and golden hairpin—

昭阳殿里恩爱绝，
蓬莱宫中日月长。
回头下望人寰处，
不见长安见尘雾。
唯将旧物表深情，
钿合金钗寄将去。

Zhaoyang (“bright sun”) was originally the residence of Han Empress-Consort Zhao, and later became a general term for any imperial residence (l.103), and Mount Penlai is the legendary island of celestial beings in the eastern ocean where Yang Guifei is spending her afterlife. The dust and fog are sometimes understood as the result of war and and sometimes of just mortality in general. Idiom: keepsake (l.107) is literally “old thing.”

---L.

Comments

[sartorias]

We've shifted narrators again, right?

Very vivid.

[lnhammer]

This is indirect quotation of the consort's answer, yeah -- getting this piecemeal makes this less than clear.