Releasing My Sorrow 3, Yuan Zhen (300 Tang Shi #207)

[lnhammer]

I languish, grieving for you and also for myself.
How long is a hundred years in hours of a life?
Deng You had no son, and soon I knew that fate—
Pan Yue mourned his dead wife in a wasteful song.
Even buried together, where could I look in the shadow-lands?
A fated meeting in another life is hard to hope for.
Yet till night’s end, I will keep opening my eyes,
Repaying your whole lifetime with still-wrinkled brows.

遣悲怀 之三
闲坐悲君亦自悲，
百年都是几多时？
邓攸无子寻知命，
潘岳悼亡犹费词。
同穴窅冥何所望？
他生缘会更难期。
惟将终夜长开眼，
报答平生未展眉。

Yuan Zhen and Wei Cong were childless. Deng You and Pan Yue both lived during the Western Jin Dynasty—the latter (who was infamous for his good looks) wrote elegies mourning his wife, including a three-poem set that was model for this one.

---L.

Comments

[lnhammer]

I think we're to understand "wasteful" in the sense of "in vain." The wrinkled (literally "not yet smooth") brows indicates his own continuing distress -- she had a whole lifetime with him, but all he can do now is mope.