Revealed to Song Shanwei, Ghost of an Unnamed Woman

[lnhammer]

Moon’s setting through three trunks of trees,
Sun’s shining in the ninefold sky.
The worthy’s nighttime banquet ends:
His brief distinction’s paid with years.

示宋善威
作者：无名女鬼
月落三株树，
日映九重天。
良夜欢宴罢，
暂别庚申年。

This ghost poem (from CTP ch866) doesn’t have a headnote, darn it, though one site had basic info on Song Shanwei: he was from Hengshui, southern Hebei, and at one point was the military superintendent of a nearby county. His military exploits made it into one of the chronicles (which I’m not looking up) and he died in 720.

This … might be necromancy in the strict definition of having the dead foretell the future? “Revealed” certainly suggests it—and Song’s brief bio calls this a 谶 (chèn), “prophecy/omen.” That last line is, like many oracles, not easy to grasp. The best I’ve come up with is a hint that bright candles burn briefly, and his time is coming. Consider this a tentative translation at best.

For your amusement, calligraphy of the last two lines. (This site is fun—try pasting a line from any of these ghost poems into the box at the top.)

---L.

Comments

[mekare]

Since I found your blog only recently, is ghost poem a genre of Chinese poetry?

[lnhammer]

I don't have a quick answer to that, as I've only just started diving into this (previous 1, previous 2), but the short answer is Yes.

Longer answer: the humongo* anthology Complete Tang Poems has two chapters of poems ascribed to 鬼, spirits of the dead. I started poking at this a couple weeks ago, and discovered some of this stuff is amazing, both folklorically and fannishly. I mean, there's a poem that was "thrown at" a general by a suit of armor -- I mean, who can resist that? No one -- and another "written in blood" on a wall. I've translated a dozen-plus so far and starting to post the first drafts. Per my usual mode, I'll post a compilation of more polished revisions in my other journal when I get enough -- I'm planning on the first such installment being my first thirteen poems, because ghosts.

* 49,000-odd poems covering 360 years.

[mekare]

49,000 poems!? O_o Wow. And thank you for your reply, I appreciate it. Sounds fascinating!

[lnhammer]

Traditional Chinese scholarship cannot be accused of not being industrious.

[sartorias]

Very elusive, very. I do like the images of the first two lines.

More ghost poems!

[lnhammer]

I like them, too -- and they play well with my tentative reading, which doesn't hurt my ego at all. Though the elusiveness is even there at the beginning (why three tree-trunks?).