江城子·墨云拖雨过西楼 Over the red chambers, clouds of ink drift by

江城子·墨云拖雨过西楼

原作: 苏轼（字子瞻, 号东坡居士; 11世纪北宋）

英译及赏析: 闵晓红(2024.08)

墨云拖雨过西楼。

水东流，晚烟收。

柳外残阳，回照动帘钩。

今夜巫山真个好，

花未落，酒新篘。

美人微笑转星眸。

月华羞，捧金瓯。

歌扇萦风，吹散一春愁。

试问江南诸伴侣，

谁似我，醉扬州。

Over the red chambers, clouds of ink drift by

--to the tune of Jiangchengzi

Chinese original: Su Shi (11th AC, social name 'Zizhan', art name 'Dongpo')

English translation & annotation: Julia Min (Aug. 2024)

Over the red chambers, clouds of ink drift by,

dragging pebbles of rain across a sunset sky.

The Yangtse rolls eastward in waves of white,

taking with it the last breath of cloudy clime.

On the banks, willows bow to the golden light

that gilds curtain hooks to shimmer and shine.

A blooming garden with newly filtered wine,

all sweetly tuned for a lush terrace of delight.

My beauty has a smile like the starry night.

The silver moon, now pale and shy, has to hide.

Her singing is the gentle whisper of moonlight.

A fair fan in hand, she soothes my moody mind.

To River South, my peers in the endless fight:

“Such fun in Yangzhou, I won’t change for thine.”

Appreciation:

It’s a sentimental poem, spur-of-the-moment yet well-structured, with a yin-yang revolving pattern for a dynamic outcome built with words. Your imaginary eye would follow the poet from west to east, then from the distant to the near, only to highlight the main role - the beauty, then to friends afar, and back to ‘me’ here. This could be quite impressive to many people, but nothing unique in literature among the Chinese literati. It has been a habitual mindset, like a code pattern set in the Chinese ideological bloodline. And Su Shi was a master of the format.

Let’s dig a little deeper. The readers here are entertained by a passing storm over the red chambers, which were usually located on the west side of a residential complex, and in Chinese literature, the west chambers imply the living section for ladies. It could be a luxurious place with a two-story pavilion, where the upper level was used as a drawing room. And this main pavilion is usually linked by covered corridors to one-level rooms, with a small garden in the middle. Sometimes there is also a pond and lotus flowers. It could also be a place of entertainment for the gentry—a socialising venue where they would compose ci lyrics to popular tunes for singers to perform at the occasion.

Here, the river flowing to the East Sea, taking the cloudy clime, suggests that his cloudy days were over, or were supposed to be over, for a clearer and freer world. The spring view, the beauty, the wine, and the music were supposed to put him on the moon. Yet something was bothering him, revealed, as usual, in the last couplet, which underlines the endless fight between the conservative old party and the new party, pointing to the miseries of the people even after a prosperous year, as they were compelled to pay much higher debt and tax under the New Law.

Dongpo was the Magistrate/Mayor of Yangzhou from March to August 1092, after serving as the Secretary-General to the Emperor and Governor of Zhejiang. He was likely greeted by local officials and the gentlemen's society at a party, where he was invited to compose a poem for the occasion. It was a brief stay in Yangzhou, but the local people have since loved him for, among other achievements, his significant efforts to reduce their debt, which the emperor finally waived for one year.

Reference:

2.     baike.baidu.com