多丽·小楼寒
原作：李清照 英译：戈登.奥赛茵，闵晓红
小楼寒，
夜长帘幕低垂。
恨萧萧、无情风雨，
夜来揉损琼肌。
也不似、贵妃醉脸，
也不似、孙寿愁眉。
韩令偷香，
徐娘傅粉，
莫将比拟未新奇。
细看取、屈平陶令，
风韵正相宜。
微风起，
清芬蕴藉，
不减酴釄。
渐秋阑、雪清玉瘦，
向人无限依依。
似愁凝、汉皋解佩，
似泪洒、纨扇题诗。
朗月清风，
浓烟暗雨，
天教憔悴度芳姿。
纵爱惜、不知从此，
留得几多时？
人情好，
何须更忆，
泽畔东篱。
In her cold chamber the whole night long
- to the tune of Duoli
written by Li Qingzhao
translated by Gordon Osing & Julia Min
In her cold chamber the whole night long,
the curtains sagging, tightly drawn,
she hates the incessant winds and rains
that chase to ruin her jade complexion.
Forget Yang Guifei's tipsy smile,
Sun Shou's frowned crescent eyebrows,
or Han shou's stolen incense
and Lady Xu's powdered face.
Look closer, my friend,
Qu Ping and Magistrate Tao knew better!
The breeze lifts a subtle fragrance
like raspberry, but all the sweeter.
Autumn deepens, and her fine snowy skin
shows an ultimate reluctance that is human,
like the sorrow at Hangao for lost pendants,
or Lady Ban’s poem of tears on her silk fan.
Under the full moon in chilly winds,
in thickening haze and darkening rains,
the Gods spend all her fragrance.
No matter how we cherish the moment,
only out of time, she’s never for long.
If the world weren't so wrong,
who'd need the effort to send
for Lord Qu in his lakeshore garden!
---
Appreciation:
This ci is thought to have come from Li Qingzhao's early period (1108-1127), before she fled south. It is some-times called an "Ode to Osmanthus Flowers." The great Chu State poet Qu Yuan had written a treatise on the virtues of each blossom in the flower Pantheon, forgetting to include the Osmanthus golden blossoms. Here the poet uses the osmanthus to suggest the unrecognized and the unappreciated, which could be her own creations, and, indeed, herself, too fine a lady to offer the world some loud address. Although she was already very well received but still not included in the State’s Official collection, simply because she was a woman. This also explains why today we have such a small number of her poems left.
As an ode lyric, she didn’t follow the conventional way of focusing on the beauty only, but shifting the readers’ attention to the comparison with the tone of a critic. The other hit among flower poems is her choice to describe the quality of Osmanthus flower without naming it in the whole poem. If we haven’t added it in the title but used the first line as the title as often the case with Ci poems, the whole poem would read like a riddle again, like her other poem on peony flower ( ‘’Tis the Last Flower of Spring Days – to the tune of Qingqingchaoman). I could imagine it is not just her personal style but more a humorous sensation among the gentle society entertainment occasions. I’m all for it for the fun, not wasting her effort. Riddle game was very popular in ancient China, still so today during festive season celebrations.
The plum blossom, that occurs in late February or early March, when Winter is still upon the land, represents thus endurance, honor in adversity and lonely courage, as in the famous poem “The Plum Blossoms” by Su Shi (Su Tong-po). Chrysanthemums, that bloom at the end of the Summer and into the Autumn, represent spirit growing beautiful and expressing love of life as the Winter draws near.
Notes:
"sao ren": Qu Yuan（340—278 BC）founder of Romanticism in Poetry. He wrote the longest lyric Li Sao in ancient China. It covers many flowers in terms of the qualities each suggested to the Confucian gentlemen.
Pinying and Word -For-Word Translation:
zhè gū tiān ·àn dàn qīng huáng tǐ xìng róu
àn dàn qīng huáng tǐ xìng róu ，
qíng shū jì yuǎn zhī xiāng liú 。
hé xū qiǎn bì qīng hóng sè ，
zì shì huā zhōng dì yī liú 。
méi dìng dù ，jú yīng xiū ，
huà lán kāi chù guàn zhōng qiū 。
sāo rén kě shà wú qíng sī ，
hé shì dāng nián bú jiàn shōu 。
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