Releasing My Sorrows 1, Yuan Zhen (300 Tang Shi #205)
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 07:54![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammer(Has it really been 8 months since I worked on 3TP? It really has. Yikes.)
A daughter doted on the most by Lord Xie An,
You married this Qian Lou whose matters all went awry.
Seeing I had no robes, you searched in your trousseau—
When I begged, Buy more wine, you sold your golden hairpin—
Wild greens supplied our meals, tasty as long beans—
Dead leaves eked out our fire, thanks to a scholar-tree.
And now I have an official’s wage, more than ten-thousand,
While I prepare your offerings and fast again.
遣悲怀 之一
谢公最小偏怜女，
自嫁黔娄百事乖。
顾我无衣搜荩箧，
泥他沽酒拔金钗。
野蔬充膳甘长藿，
落叶添薪仰古槐。
今日俸钱过十万，
与君营奠复营斋。
First of a set of three poems (all in 3TP) written in memory of his wife, Wei Cong, who had died two years previously. Xie An was an Eastern Jin Dynasty scholar-official who doted on his niece, the scholar and poet Xie Daoyun (mentioned in Three Character Classic), standing in for his father-in-law. Qian Lou was a Warring States era official with extremely bad political luck who died an impoverished, standing in for himself. Clothing him from her trousseau is a big deal—a woman’s dowry was strictly for her own use, and went with her should she ever return to her father’s house (when divorced or widowed). The offerings are those of a memorial service.
I’m considering the slightly less literal translation “Unbridled Sorrow” for the title.
---L.
A daughter doted on the most by Lord Xie An,
You married this Qian Lou whose matters all went awry.
Seeing I had no robes, you searched in your trousseau—
When I begged, Buy more wine, you sold your golden hairpin—
Wild greens supplied our meals, tasty as long beans—
Dead leaves eked out our fire, thanks to a scholar-tree.
And now I have an official’s wage, more than ten-thousand,
While I prepare your offerings and fast again.
遣悲怀 之一
谢公最小偏怜女，
自嫁黔娄百事乖。
顾我无衣搜荩箧，
泥他沽酒拔金钗。
野蔬充膳甘长藿，
落叶添薪仰古槐。
今日俸钱过十万，
与君营奠复营斋。
First of a set of three poems (all in 3TP) written in memory of his wife, Wei Cong, who had died two years previously. Xie An was an Eastern Jin Dynasty scholar-official who doted on his niece, the scholar and poet Xie Daoyun (mentioned in Three Character Classic), standing in for his father-in-law. Qian Lou was a Warring States era official with extremely bad political luck who died an impoverished, standing in for himself. Clothing him from her trousseau is a big deal—a woman’s dowry was strictly for her own use, and went with her should she ever return to her father’s house (when divorced or widowed). The offerings are those of a memorial service.
I’m considering the slightly less literal translation “Unbridled Sorrow” for the title.
---L.
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