Lines, Zhang Shuozhong

[lnhammer]

Song of the Butterfly
Su Qin of stingy fate departed each kingdom in turn,
Pan Yue of many feelings cycled through lust and sorrow.
Tonight I roost in the fragrant grass beside the path—
Which summons thoughts of the underworld to sons of lords.

句
作者：张守中
薄命苏秦频去国，
多情潘岳旋兴悲。
今夜若栖芳草径，
为传幽意达王孙。
〈咏蝶〉

Su Qin was a political strategist of the Warring States period, leader of a clique who tried to create an alliance against Qin of the other six remaining states—lots of diplomatic journeys. Pan Yue was a famously good-looking poet of the Jin Dynasty—a reputed veteran of many love affairs. “Descendent of lords” is an honorific, not necessarily a literal. The last line can just as easily be read “Which summons hidden thoughts to the descendents of lords,” and the only reason I went with underworld is because it’s in a ghostly collection.

No idea how this is a ghost poem. Striking out wildly: there’s Zhuangzi’s famous dream of being a butterfly dreaming he was a human, but … eh? Cryptic fragment indeed.

---L.

Comments

[sartorias]

You know, we could legit blame Zhuangzi for a lot of the weirder ones . . . and yeah, this is one. Yep yep yep.

[lnhammer]

It might even be a decent zeroth order Standard Operating Procedure: if it's weird and you don't understand it, blame Zhuangzi until proven otherwise. Though that doesn't work for Li Shangyin -- he builds his own cryptic edifaces.

I really should read Zhuangzi all the way through, just for the cultural literacy. In translation, though.

[sartorias]

Imo he's tough enough in English!

[lnhammer]

True, that.