The Brocade Se, Li Shangyin (300 Tang Shi #209)

[lnhammer]

The brocade se once pointlessly had fifty strings—
Each string, each bridge, brings memories of blossoming years.
Zhuangzi dreamed at dawn, a butterfly confused.
King Wang’s spring feelings were entrusted to cuckoos.
The moon is full on the vast ocean—pearls have tears.
The sun is warm on Mt. Lantian—jade gives off smoke.
This feeling: couldn’t it wait till it’s just recollection?
The thing is, back then, I was completely at a loss.

锦瑟
锦瑟无端五十弦，
一弦一柱思华年。
庄生晓梦迷蝴蝶，
望帝春心托杜鹃。
沧海月明珠有泪，
蓝田日暖玉生烟。
此情可待成追忆，
只是当时已惘然。

The first of ten poems by Li Shangyin, whose poetic power is suggested by how many were chosen, despite their difficulty, for this textbook anthology for schoolboys. This one is his most famous (it’s often placed first in his collected poems) and famously enigmatic (it’s up there with Emerald Walls), woven from a tissue of allusions (with a density comparable to late Heian poetics). Suggestions of just what he’s Getting At are legion. I include my own interpretations with the annotations, but honestly it’s mostly flail.

• l.1: The se was an ancient zither, and “brocade” in this context means ornately decorated. According to one legend, when the mythical emperor Fuxi invented it, he gave it 50 strings, but when his daughter played it, the music was too plaintive (and so indecorous) and he broke it in half to make the more-or-less-standard 25-string size. TN: “bridge” might really be “peg.” Paraphrase: art shouldn’t affect the audience too much with a suggestion that he’s listening to a woman play.


• l.2: Paraphrase: and yet (this) music still stirs up memories.


• l.3: Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi once woke up from a dream of being a butterfly, then remarked that he wasn’t sure whether he was a man who dreamt of being a butterfly or a butterfly now dreaming he’s a man. Paraphrase: but then, our reality is subjective.


• l.4: The legendary King Wang of the Warring State of Shu (in Sichuan) was notoriously amorous: he had an affair with his prime minister’s wife, then abdicated in remorse (in favor of said prime minister) to become a hermit, and supposedly after his death became a cuckoo that mourns in the woods. A “spring feeling” is, yes, gettin’ horny. Paraphrase: and strong feelings can change this with a suggestion that the memories triggered in l.2 involved a love affair.


• l.5: Pearls were held to wax and wane with the moon. The Chinese equivalent for mermaids, “shark people,” wept pearls instead of tears. Paraphrase: something something strong emotions … maybe?


• l.6: Mt. Lantian was renowned for its fine jade. There’s a ghost story about Purple Jade (lan means “indigo”) who returned after death to clear her lover of accusations of robbing her tomb, and when her mother tried to embrace her she dissolved like smoke. Paraphrase: eventually we wake up from those feelings, and they dissolve.


• l.7: TN: this could be a rhetorical question, statement of intent, or general statement (“one can”). Paraphrase: I want to lay this memory to rest.


• l.8: Paraphrase: but even at the time my emotions were strong, and are too strong still.

Li Shangyin’s sometimes practice of not giving contextual titles, but instead using the first words or even leaving it untitled, was striking, given conventions of the time. And speaking of the title, it is very tempting to break with my established practice and translate se as “zither.”

---L.

Comments

[sartorias]

I actually got the Zhuangzi one, but woo none of the others.

[lnhammer]

I knew about the myth of the origin of the se, though not the reason for breaking it in half, and the correspondence of pearls and moon phase. The rest, I had to
piece together from commentaries for confused modern readers.