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lnhammerBut kept one tine of the hairpin and one side of the box—
Breaking the hairpin’s gold, splitting the box’s inlay.
So long as he made his heart as strong as gold and inlay,
In heavens above or human realms, they’ll meet again.
As the time to part approached, she sent another message,
A message with an oath known only in their hearts:
“Upon a Double Seventh in Longevity Hall,
At midnight one time, no one else was there, we whispered,
‘Just as there is in the sky the longed-for bridge of birds,
There is on earth the longed-for trees grown both together.’
Heaven is lasting. Earth endures. Time has no limit.
This regret goes on and on without an end.”
钗留一股合一扇，
钗擘黄金合分钿。
但教心似金钿坚，
天上人间会相见。
临别殷勤重寄词，
词中有誓两心知。
七月七日长生殿，
夜半无人私语时。
在天愿作比翼鸟，
在地愿为连理枝。
天长地久有时尽，
此恨绵绵无绝期。
This time, I think it’s a direct quote, but I’m guessing where exactly it starts and ends. (There are no quotation markers in classical Chinese.) Especially open to interpretation is whether the last two lines are still her talking or the narrator—which makes as big a difference in interpretation as to whether Keats’s Grecian urn says just “Truth is beauty, beauty truth” (as first printed) or the rest of the last lines (as in his manuscript). If she says those lines, the regret is that she cannot fulfil that promise. If the narrator, the regret is probably best understood as sorrow, their joint grieving at their lives together being cut off. Given her apparent distant attitude of the several lines before and the fact that she is now immortal, I’m inclined to the former, even though this means not circling back to the emperor and closing off that thread (or even leaving it open).
Longevity Hall (l.114) is in Hauqing Palace (l.9), which actually does circle us back to the beginning. The Double Seventh Festival (l.114), on the day two separated immortal lovers can meet by a bridge of magpie wings over the river of the Milky Way, was and still is a couples day. If not clear from context, two trees growing together (l.118) so that their branches graft is a symbol of marital fidelity.
And that’s a complete draft. W00t!
---L.
Breaking the hairpin’s gold, splitting the box’s inlay.
So long as he made his heart as strong as gold and inlay,
In heavens above or human realms, they’ll meet again.
As the time to part approached, she sent another message,
A message with an oath known only in their hearts:
“Upon a Double Seventh in Longevity Hall,
At midnight one time, no one else was there, we whispered,
‘Just as there is in the sky the longed-for bridge of birds,
There is on earth the longed-for trees grown both together.’
Heaven is lasting. Earth endures. Time has no limit.
This regret goes on and on without an end.”
钗留一股合一扇，
钗擘黄金合分钿。
但教心似金钿坚，
天上人间会相见。
临别殷勤重寄词，
词中有誓两心知。
七月七日长生殿，
夜半无人私语时。
在天愿作比翼鸟，
在地愿为连理枝。
天长地久有时尽，
此恨绵绵无绝期。
This time, I think it’s a direct quote, but I’m guessing where exactly it starts and ends. (There are no quotation markers in classical Chinese.) Especially open to interpretation is whether the last two lines are still her talking or the narrator—which makes as big a difference in interpretation as to whether Keats’s Grecian urn says just “Truth is beauty, beauty truth” (as first printed) or the rest of the last lines (as in his manuscript). If she says those lines, the regret is that she cannot fulfil that promise. If the narrator, the regret is probably best understood as sorrow, their joint grieving at their lives together being cut off. Given her apparent distant attitude of the several lines before and the fact that she is now immortal, I’m inclined to the former, even though this means not circling back to the emperor and closing off that thread (or even leaving it open).
Longevity Hall (l.114) is in Hauqing Palace (l.9), which actually does circle us back to the beginning. The Double Seventh Festival (l.114), on the day two separated immortal lovers can meet by a bridge of magpie wings over the river of the Milky Way, was and still is a couples day. If not clear from context, two trees growing together (l.118) so that their branches graft is a symbol of marital fidelity.
And that’s a complete draft. W00t!
---L.
no subject
Date: 5 June 2020 14:08 (UTC)That was fascinating!
no subject
Date: 5 June 2020 14:44 (UTC)