Last Year at the city gate we kissed farewell
(a letter per pro a young wife)
--to the tune of “A Young Traveller”
Chinese original: Su Shi (11th AC, social name 'Zizhan', art name 'Dongpo')
English translation & annotation: Julia Min (Oct. 2024)
Last year at the city gate we kissed farewell.
Hangzhou snowed like catkins leaving willows.
This year Spring still holds on for your way home,
Catkins fly like the snow, seeking your smile.
Drinking alone by the window, curtains rolled,
I asked the fair Moon to join me for a toast.
She replied through the gauze in the night’s cold,
Tending her light to the beam’s loving swallows.
Analysis:
Su Shi was at the age of 37 and held the post as the Governor/Magistrate of Hangzhou in 1074. It was probably during a social function where he was approached by a singer or a lady to write a letter on her behalf. Such scenario was pretty common back then when many women were illiterate.
In the first stanza the comparison between last year and this year, in the form of antithesis, reads smoothly for a stronger impression in the readers’ mind. Catkins are often depicted in classical literature to associate with a yearning / seeking / helpless sentiment. The second stanza unrolled a touching picture of a young lady drinking alone by the moonlit window in her chamber. Classical architecture for newly married couples would usually have beams carved or painted with loving swallows, magpies, mandarin duck pair, or other creatures bearing romantic meanings in the culture.
This short poem shall fall into the category of his sentimental poetry profile, which may seem pale in comparison with his highly recognised poems in the heroic and robust style. The romantic sentiments of the young wife is rather implied under the line through symbolism rather than on the line by using words like “I miss you. ” Yet the vocabulary used is simple everyday language.
少年游·去年相送
(润州作, 代人寄远)
原作: 苏轼（字子瞻, 号东坡居士; 11世纪北宋）
去年相送，余杭门外，飞雪似杨花。
今年春尽，杨花似雪，犹不见还家。
对酒卷帘邀明月，风露透窗纱。
恰似姮娥怜双燕，分明照、画梁斜。
Reference:
m.gushiwen.cn(古诗文网）
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