#Xin Qiji

[famousborntoday]

Xin Qiji was a Chinese poet, calligrapher, and military general during the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279).

Link: Xin Qiji

[lezliebrooke]

[leahsfiction]

Xin Qiji

Written at Boshan Temple

(to the tune of "Partridge Sky")

Instead of travelling up to Chang'an, I'll make mountain temples tired of seeing my face. Whether life is vibrant or dull, I'll still look for joy; Whether rich or poor, I'll live my life. I'd rather live as me - can an official do that? After travelling the world, I'm retiring to the hometown farm. Pine and bamboo each make splendid friends And mountain birds and flowers make great brothers.

--

i think the sun is coming out today! here's a cheerful (in my read) poem by Song poet Xin Qiji (who liked to climb high towers) on the theme of "fuck this shit, i'm gonna retire" :D

辛弃疾 ⟪鹧鸪天·博山寺作⟫

不向长安路上行 却教山寺厌逢迎 味无味处求吾乐 材不材间过此生 宁作我 岂其卿 人间走遍却归耕 一松一竹真朋友 山鸟山花好弟兄

[garden-ghoul]

Happy Gushiwensday Monday!! Today we have an artful and twisty poem by Xin Qiji called “Boshan Temple Composition.”

I don't follow the road up to chang'an. I'm always at the mountain temple, where they've gotten sick of my chattering. I seek to live cheerfully between perfume and porridge, oh yes--- in this life I walk between material and immaterial. I work at my own pace; why do I need to be an official? I've walked all over the world, but in the end I returned to my plow. the only true friends are pine and bamboo, oh yes! the only comrades I need are mountain birds and flowers.

notes and original text below the cut. this is a really good one.

鹧鸪天·博山寺作

不向长安路上行。却教山寺厌逢迎。味无味处求吾乐，材不材间过此生。 宁作我，岂其卿。人间走遍却归耕。一松一竹真朋友，山鸟山花好弟兄。

The thing you need to understand is that Xin Qiji is being so funny. It’s not just in my translation, although that is the reason I chose to translate it like this. He’s just written a very funny poem, albeit one that deeply puzzled us when we were writing our first drafts.

the road up to chang’an --- obviously he’s saying he has no interest in going to the capital and its imperial court. I want to highlight here that you could read 路上 together as “up the road,” but 上行 is also a binome indicating the passage of something upward in a hierarchy. It can apply to things like submitting paperwork to an authority, but also you use it specifically for journeying (by train!) in the direction of the capital. I think it’s so neat that this idiom exists, and stands in vague conceptual opposition to the English “downtown.”

between perfume and porridge --- the first of a collection of great structural parallels. It reads 味无味 “flavorful flavorless,” which I interpret as being about either excitement or epicureanism. In lieu of a decent parallel phrase that also makes the meaning clear, I’ve used alliteration.

material and immaterial --- he’s being funny again. One way to translate 材不材 is as I have it here, which sounds rather lofty. Maybe he heard it at Boshan Temple. Another way to translate it, incorporating the binome 不材, is “talented and talentless.” I desperately wanted to think of a pun that would convey both meanings, but the connection between physical substance and ability doesn’t exist in English. Tragic.

oh yes --- it ended up in the same place in both verses, but neither of them is in the original poem. I added them to convey a lighthearted tone, a verbal wink to the reader: “We both know I’m being silly. You love it.”

[liberty-or-death]

Green Jade Case, Yuan Xi/Shangyuan Festival. 青玉案·元夕 By Xin Qiji 辛弃疾

It’s the Chinese Lantern Festival/Shangyuan Festival today. (Lol you might have read about it in the first chapter of TGCF xD). So I thought I’d share this Song Dynasty ci written by the poet Xin Qiji. ("Green Jade Case 青玉案" refers to the ci pattern.)

@fwoopersongs recced this ci to me, and the first thing that caught my eye was just how utterly beautiful the imagery was!  I think this image has also been used in multiple wuxia/xianxia novels so you might be familiar with the scene if you’ve read enough.  And the final line “灯火阑珊处 under the glow of the faint lantern light’ has been quoted repeated in love songs & novels so I just had to translate this.

东风夜放花千树，更吹落、星如雨。

The streets are lighted with vibrant lanterns, like thousand of trees filled with many flowers.  Fireworks light up the air, and they fall like a rain of stars.

宝马雕车香满路。凤箫声动，玉壶光转，一夜鱼龙舞。

Luxurious horse drawn carriage and fragrant perfumes permeate the street.  The Fengxiao (reed flute) plays, the jade pot swirls; it is a night that’s as lively as the sea

T/N: the 玉壶 Jade Pot is a common symbolism in ancient poetry.  It usually represents someone with a flawless and pure heart; someone who is honest and indifferent to fame and fortune. Sometimes, it also refers to the radiant moon. In this case, some translations have translated this to the pot, and others the moon. And I love the juxtaposition between the 凤 Phoenix and the 龙 Dragon. 😍 鱼龙舞 does mean a lively scene, but if you break the words down, it means the dance of the dragon and fish, which I think is a beautiful imagery.

蛾儿雪柳黄金缕，笑语盈盈暗香去。

With moths, winter willow and gold threads in their hair, the ladies laugh and their fragrance drift by.  

A 蛾儿 (moth), 雪柳 (winter willow) were hair accessories that women would adorn in ancient times during the Chinese Lantern Festival. 

众里寻他千百度，蓦然回首，那人却在，灯火阑珊处

I search for her thousands of times in the crowd.  And when I turn back suddenly, she’s right there under the glow of the faint lantern light. 

[farouche-landau]

Wow, this poem is new to me but it's really good (and I assume the original must be even better!)

It reminds me of one of my late grandfather's favorite poems, Spring and Fall by Gerard Manley Hopkins, which has absolutely gorgeous language, though its argument (like my grandfather) is deeply Catholic in a way that I ultimately don't agree with (and reading it against the Xin Qiji poem helps me see my points of disagreement).

Márgarét, áre you gríeving Over Goldengrove unleaving? Leáves like the things of man, you With your fresh thoughts care for, can you? Ah! ás the heart grows older It will come to such sights colder By and by, nor spare a sigh Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie; And yet you wíll weep and know why. Now no matter, child, the name: Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same. Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed What heart heard of, ghost guessed: It ís the blight man was born for, It is Margaret you mourn for.

what's the opposite of feeling sand slip through your fingers because I feel this poem more and more as time passes

[kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate]

CHOU NU ER by Xin Qiji

When young, I knew not the taste of sorrow, But loved to mount the high towers; I loved to mount the high towers To compose a new song, urging myself to talk about sorrow.

Now that I have known all the taste of sorrow, I would like to talk about it, but refrain; I would like to talk about it, but refrain, And say merely: 'It is chilly; what a fine autumn!'

[fwoopersongs]

丑奴儿·书博山道中壁 - To the tune of Ugly Girlie · Written on the wall along Mount Bo’s path

by 辛弃疾 (Xin Qiji, 1140 to 1207)

少年不识愁滋味 shào nián bù shí chóu zī wèi A youth, once unacquainted with the tang of sorrow,

爱上层楼 ài shàng céng lóu liked climbing tall towers…

爱上层楼 ài shàng céng lóu liked climbing tall towers

为赋新词强说愁 wèi fù xīn cí qiáng shuō chóu to craft fresh lyrics by contriving sorrow,

而今识尽愁滋味 Érjīn shí jǐn chóu zīwèi now acquainted with a myriad flavours of sorrow,

欲说还休 yù shuō huán xiū suppresses the urge to speak…

欲说还休 yù shuō huán xiū suppresses the urge to speak,

却道天凉好个秋 què dào tiān liáng hǎo gè qiū remarking instead, 'It's a cool day, what a fine Autumn!'.

.................................................................................

N O T E S

(I’m trying something slightly different for the Song Dynasty folks. Digging is fun but very tiring for my Tang ladies and gentlemen LOL.)

A note on the title: The tune pattern / cipai 丑奴儿 is the same as 采桑子, for which it was more popularly known. This likely originated from one or two popular tunes from the Tang Dynasty's Royal Academy with similar names like 采桑 Picking Mulberry and 杨下采桑 Picking Mulberry 'Neath the Poplars. Given that the alternative name is something so iconically done by girls, I couldn't quite get the idea that 丑奴儿 is something like the equivalent of 'rascal' for girls LOL. So Ugly Girlie it is xD (sorrynotsorry).

So in the post for his poem, 青玉案·元夕- Green Jadeite Platter · Fifteenth Day of New Year, we’ve talked touched briefly on Xin Qiji’s childhood raised by his grandfather in Jin territory, how he rebelled and returned to Song, only to be met with obstacle upon obstacle, and eventually withdrew from politics, settling in Shangrao in his 40s. The year is 1181, and for the next twenty years or so, he continued to live there. We can get to know this period in his life from a couple of other poems, so let’s talk about that another time! :D

Why 上饶 Shangrao is relevant for our poem today, if you’d take a look at the photo below, is because Boshan i.e. Mount Bo is relatively nearby. And even today, it’s a place recommended for travel and sightseeing holidays (and every single one of the five articles I opened mentions Xin Qiji lmao).

Source 

He visited Boshan often and was friendly with the monks at Boshan Temple. How friendly was he? They set aside a reading room for him - I couldn't find any photos, but wikipedia implies that the temple has marked out the place which can still be visited. He also wrote about them quite a bit, and so then it makes a lot of sense that he would casually brush a little reflective lyric there.

I was laughing at his self awareness with the whole ‘climbing tall towers and forcing some feelings to write better lines’ (what a mood!) wondering if he’d ever written about going up on a tower literally, possibly before this point in life. Well…

鹧鸪天·欲上高楼去避愁 - To the tune of Day of the Partridge · Perhaps the tall tower is a place to dodge sorrows by Xin Qiji

欲上高楼去避愁 | Perhaps the tall tower is a place to dodge sorrows. 愁还随我上高楼 | But still, these sorrows, up the tall tower they do follow. 经行几处江山改 | The landscape where I've passed has utterly changed, 多少亲朋尽白头 | and many are the friends and family with white in their hair. 归休去 去归休 | Go retire and return, retire and go home. 不成人总要封侯 | Must every man naturally achieve their merits and title? 浮云出处元无定 | The drifting clouds have never been asked their place, 得似浮云也自由 | we ought to be as those clouds that drift so freeeeeee.

(Yeah, sounds like he’s had it and is ready to go.)

On the baidu page for the main poem of today, a dude named Zhuo Renyue who lived during the Ming Dynasty commented in his anthology where this piece was included, 'Earlier it was forcing (himself) to speak, afterwards it was forcing (himself) not to speak.

So gently wry and ironic!

[fateandloveentwined]

poetry lines befitting MCS and XJY

These are mostly chinese tang shi and song ci poetry quotes, with a great biased amount from Su Shi because OP doesn't know better. Crude, 5-minute english translations below. There are lines I semi-made up or adapted from fandom/cpop songs (that is, most of Xiao Jingyan's lines), ngl OP is rather embarrassed of them because they aren't good at all looking back now but we'll just leave them here or else XJY would end up with zero quotes.

梅长苏 Mei Changsu

想那日束髪从军，想那日霜角辕门，想那日挟剑惊风，想那日横槊凌云。 ——夏完淳

Think to the day I tied back my hair and enlisted. Think to the day the horn rang at the frostbitten tents, think to the day I danced my sword making the sound that deafens the wind. Think to the day I took to the lance, and it pierced through the skies, rising higher than the clouds. — Xia Wanchun

将士百战身名裂。 向河梁、回头万里，故人长绝。 易水萧萧西风冷，满座衣冠似雪，正壮士、悲歌未彻。 ——辛弃疾

The warrior fights a hundred battles, yet what remains is his severed reputation. He looks to the bridge over the river, thousands of miles back, past acquaintances forever gone. In another life, over the howling of the west wind and the cold Yi rivers, the banquet sits, clothes adorned in snowlike white. The courageous man strides through the blizzard, the song of lament never ceasing. — Xin Qiji

零落成泥碾作尘，只有香如故。 ——陆游

The plum blossoms wither and drift to the ground, crushed into earthly soil and dust. The prevailing fragrance is what remains. — Lu You

亦余心之所善兮，虽九死其犹未悔。 ——屈原

So long as this is what my heart longs for and treasures, though I die nine deaths, my heart does not regret. — Qu Yuan

君臣一梦，今古空名。 ——苏轼

Lords and lieges ebb into nothing but a dream; in the river of time transcending present and past vain titles remain, cast into the void. — Su Shi

无波真古井，有节是秋筠。 ——苏轼

The heart is at peace like the ancient well that does not ripple; the integrity is as the autumn bamboos, steadfast and unfaltering. — Su Shi

舳舻千里，旌旗蔽空，酾酒临江，横槊赋诗。 ——苏轼

The warship moves a thousand miles, ensigns enshrouding the sky. He pours out wine by the riverside, holds out his lance, and writes verses as he speaks. — Su Shi

对一张琴，一壶酒，一溪云。 ——苏轼

Facing but a guqin, a jug of wine, a stream of cloud. — Su Shi

江山如画，是我心言。 ——风起时

The rivers and mountains of the kingdom outstretches before me, as moving as in art: this is my heart’s will. — from the song “Feng Qi Shi”, when the wind blows

战骨碎尽志不休，冰心未改血犹殷。 ——改自《赤血长殷》、王昌龄

Bones completely crushed from the battle, yet aspirations unwavering. The heart has not changed; the blood flows red still. — adapted from the song “Chi Xue Chang Yan”, the noble blood flows red, and poet Wang Changling

袖手妙计权倾变，敛眸笑谈意了然。 ——改自《赤血长殷》

With folded arms, he devises labyrinthine strategies. The sceptre of power sways and shifts. He shrouds his gaze modestly, and in conversations of small smiles, he discerns the intention of men. — adapted from the song “Chi Xue Chang Yan”, the noble blood flows red

萧㬌琰 Xiao Jingyan

潜龙一朝御风翔，长歌挽弓射天狼。 ——《长喑》

The submerged dragon rises one day to ride the winds. Singing high and long; the bow is drawn pointed at the invading Sirius. — from the song “Chang Yin”, the Long Darkness found here

挑灯殿阙思悄然，闻钤行宫寝无眠。 ——改自白居易

Awashed in the raised lamps of the imperial palace, thoughts whisper in grievance. The bell rings at the Jiu’an grounds, and he lies abed sleepless. — adapted from The Song of Everlasting Sorrow by Bai Juyi

驰骋沙场���华梦，谈笑鸿儒君臣纲。 ——改自《致陛下书》、刘禹锡

Dreams soar in the flurrying gallops of the battlefield, flourishing dreams of splendour and joy. In pleasant dialogue with scholars, civility obliges polite smiles into the etiquette of lords and lieges. — adapted from the song “Zhi Bi Xia Shu”, a letter to Your Majesty, and Liu Yuxi

铁马并辔封疆，几回魂梦游；更鼓落夜未央，笔下兴亡断。 ——取自《长喑》、《赤血长殷》

Armoured horses riding in parallel at the borderlands — how many times has the soul wandered to such dreams of the past. The hourly drums sound ceaseless across the long night; under the emperor's brush, the fate of prosperity and declination writes. — adapted from the song “Chang Yin”, the Long Darkness found here, and “Chi Xue Chang Yan”, the noble blood flows red

揽尽山河只手倾，昂冕袖手瞰苍生。 ——改自《长喑》

The future of his kingdom sweeps into a tilt of his hand. With crown upheld, he folds his arms in his sleeves awatching humanity. — adapted from the song “Chang Yin”, the Long Darkness found here

咫尺抚眉峰，万丈叠远峰；梦底枕笑纹，惊风掀水纹。 ——《致陛下书》

Up close, the furrowed brows are smoothed. Ten thousands of feet stretch before him, converging into mountains at a distance. In the deepest dreams, the markings of a smile lie; he stirs up the wind which marks and rips tides in the tumultuous waters. — adapted from the song “Zhi Bi Xia Shu”, a letter to Your Majesty

Two (three) things to note:

My dying obsession with Su Shi, sorry I can’t help it that perhaps over half of the all the poetry I know is from him;

To be really fair, my favourite description of Mei Changsu is 运筹帷幄之中，决胜千里之外, used in describing Zhang Liang in Si Maqian's Records of the Grand Historian. He orchestrates masterplans in the tent of the army; he determines the victory of the battle from afar, thousands of miles from the front.

As for my favourite depiction of Lin Shu, it is definitely Su Shi’s description of Cao Cao: 舳舻千里，旌旗蔽空，酾酒临江，横槊赋诗。 The warship moves a thousand miles, ensigns enshrouding the sky. He pours out wine by the riverside, holds out his lance, and writes verses as he speaks. Xin Qiji’s verse above just fits the entire story of Mei Changsu so much, it deserves a mention.

I was assembling/making these lines up for something back then and so just listed whatever came to mind (for reasons I know not I kept on listing stuff for MCS, but maybe XJY was the typical good emperor kind of person so wasn't as inspiring coming up with quotes for him).

If there are lines of poetry you find really befitting the two characters, we're more than interested starting a thread here just for that purpose.

[madeofloveandpeace]

Now I know only too well the taste of sorrow I begin to speak yet pause I begin to speak yet pause And say instead, “My, what a cool and lovely autumn.” - Xin Qiji

[movies-ive-watched]

Xin Qiji 1162, Fighting for the Motherland (2020)

*{Movie}* 1080p

Fighting for the Motherland (2020)

Action History

5.9 IMDb.com 6.7 Mydramalist.com

Synopsis…

In 1161, Wanyan Liang, emperor of the Jurchen Jin Dynasty, planned to invade the Southern Song Dynasty. Owing to the harsh recruitment policy and the Jin’s cruelty, people in the Central Plain found it hard to live on. Xin Qiji, aged 21, rose up in arms with villagers to fight against the Jin army and then joined a more influential voluntary army led by Geng Jing, winning victory after victory. In 1162, aiming to expel invaders and recover the lost land to realize the reunification, Xin Qiji went to the south to persuade the Song Emperor to drive the Jurchens out of the north. Successfully accomplishing his mission, Xin Qiji only to find the commander Geng Jing was killed by a traitor and the army had lost morale. Facing with Wanyan Basu’s army of 50,000 soldiers, what course would Xin Qiji and his 50 loyal subordinates follow?

1080p Blu-Ray now available (at Kampala, Uganda) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYSFQkKLg4n/?utm_medium=tumblr

[sakurabreeze]

-Xin Qiji

In youth I knew nothing of the taste of sorrow I liked to climb high towers I liked to climb high towers To conjure up a bit of sorrow to make new verse

Now I know only too well the taste of sorrow I begin to speak yet pause I begin to speak yet pause And say instead, “My, what a cool and lovely autumn.”

[xinyuehui]

日出日落 镌刻阑珊 捨吾有型 生死无关 · Sunrise, sunset, engraved remanent, abandon my form, put life and death behind. The elegiac couplet here signified the Chinese guardian lion's life.

日出日落 richu riluo · Sunrise, sunset

Refers to the decades he has lived carrying prayers from the people.

镌刻阑珊 juanke lanshan · Engraved remanent

The idiom 灯火阑珊处 denghuo lanshan chu comes from 青玉案·元夕 Qingyu an· Yuanxi by 辛棄疾 Xin Qiji, to describe a place as disordered and withering where little light reaches. The guardian stone lion was once worshiped is now sunk to the bottom of the river where the sun never sees.

捨吾有型 she wu you xing · I sacrifice myself, my form

In EP2 he says, “The strength of human heart is much stronger than skin, bones and flesh”. He was born out of people's worship, but as time passed, it faded away. He no longer serves his original purpose. However, Zheng Lisong’s obsession summoned him from the bottom the river once more.

生死无关 shengsi wuguan · To put all life and death behind

Final words to release him from his burdens as a guardian. He will never have to bear the responsibilities of life and death for those who had previously bestowed their wishes upon him.

[starlitwishforu]

青玉案 · 元夕 - 辛弃疾 english translation (and notes!)

ok well. all this chinese poetry posting has put me on a bit of a translation high so i wanted to share my most recent translation project, which i actually just finished recording and uploading yesterday after two whole months of waffling. the poem itself is SO fucking cute but SO hard to translate and i'm honestly very proud that i stuck with it to the end. it instantly became one of my top favourites the very first time i heard it so i hope other people can also find some joy from it!

here is the original:

青玉案 · 元夕

【宋】 辛弃疾

东风夜放花千树，更吹落、星如雨。宝马雕车香满路。凤箫声动，玉壶光转，一夜鱼龙舞。

蛾儿雪柳黄金缕，笑语盈盈暗香去。众里寻他千百度，蓦然回首，那人却在 灯火阑珊处。

and here is my translation:

Qing Yu An: Lantern Festival at Dusk

by Xin Qiji

Fireworks blossom beneath the touch of evening's eastern breeze; flurrying as they fall, sparks shower like stars. Prancing steeds pull chiseled carriages, sweeping fragrance across the path. The xiao’s decadent notes adrift, the jadelike light’s prismatic shift; the dragon-fish dance as the night-hours pass.

Combs shining in their hair, golden, silver, silken sway; sweet perfume and tinkling mirth linger in their wake. My searching gaze is futile as I scan the thronging crowds; at last I turn, and you are there, in the quiet dark of evening wane.

translation notes beneath the cut! there is a LOT, be warned!

translation notes:

so to start from the very top, let's first introduce the title 青玉案 · 元夕.

青玉案 (pinyin: Qing Yu An, lit. the matter of the verdant jade) is actually the name of a 宋词排名 (song cipaiming, song dynasty poetic/musical form). just as shakespeare wrote sonnets and basho wrote haiku, so the poets of the song dynasty wrote, among hundreds of other forms with fun names like this, Qing Yu An poems.

each 词排名 had a set number of characters per line, set rules for its tone patterns, and even came with its own tune. maybe a better western parallel would be twinkle twinkle little star, which uses the same tune as the alphabet song and baa baa black sheep.

the end result is that there are many titles under the heading of Qing Yu An, and even, according to chatgpt, another 青玉案 · 元夕.

anyway, this one by Xin Qiji, the most famous one, is titled 元夕 (yuanxi); 元 refers to 元宵节 (yuanxiaojie), the lantern festival held on the fifteenth day of the lunar new year which marks the end of the spring festival/chinese new year, and 夕 is dusk. hence a very naturally poetic name, lantern festival at dusk.

before i get into the text of the poem, i want to note that i often sacrifice rhythm/rhyme for precision of meaning. i ✨artistically✨ speed up/slow down some syllables while recording to preserve some sense of metre lol, but it does read quite awkwardly on paper. i'm a very inexpert student and have a lot to improve on!

ok so! line by line!

东风夜放花千树

--is a literally genius pun. it transliterates as: the east wind in the evening blows open the flowers of a thousand trees. very spring, right? haha spring festival get it.

however! its a chinese celebration, so what will there definitely be? fireworks 😎 and it just so happens that one word for "setting off fireworks" in chinese is 放烟花 (fang yanhua). yep, that's the same 花, which means flowers, but when combined with 烟 (smoke), it becomes a "fire-flower" 🎆!!

it's also the same 放, which in the context of actual flowers means the opening of petals, but in the phrase 放烟花 means to set off (the fireworks).

together, this line evokes both the blooming of the spring flowers under the eastern breeze* and the blooming of a thousand fireworks in the evening sky.

*spring comes from the east ofc; this is folklore and not science i think but lends to the spring-ness of the line

更吹落，星如雨

this one is pretty straightforward. lit. blown through the air by aforementioned wind, falling like a rain shower of stars.

宝马雕车香满路

oh boy. when i tell you my mom (who is my chinese teacher) and i got in several petty arguments over baomadiaoche...

so 宝马 (baoma) are just well-bred horses, prize steeds with a pedigree. a 雕车 (diaoche) (lit. carved chariot) is a very expensive carriage carved with lots of intricate decorations. in other words, these ppl are RICH.

however, it was difficult to convey the sheer decadence of 宝马雕车 without either using a miles worth of syllables or entirely losing the original cultural context. carved was too direct and ugly to hear besides, etched was not elite enough, sculpted conveyed entirely the wrong image... also, for some reason, "proud" to describe steeds was vetoed for being inaccurate???? hence the arguments.

in this scenario, the final word choice really is a matter of the least bad option.

at the same time, the second half of this line 香满路 (lit. fragrance fills the path) implies movement: the carriage is passing by, leaving the fragrance of rich people perfume in its wake. for the sake of syllables, i shifted that movement to the fragrance part of this line. i also like that this evokes a high-headed noble sweeping elegantly through the crowds.

overall, this line adds to the picture of a decadent, bustling market street during the most joyous celebration of the year.

凤箫声动，玉壶光转，一夜鱼龙舞

lit. the notes of the phoenix xiao (chinese recorder) move, jade gourd light shimmers, the fish dragons dance all night.

chinese ppl, ok, use two motifs to describe the beauty and virtue of every artistic thing ever: phoenix and jade. phoenix xiao means NOTHING. it's like virtuous xiao. jade gourd is a little harder; some say it's the moon, some say it's the lanterns. jade and light put together kinda implies moon anyway, so i just sidestepped the problem entirely.

as for 鱼龙 (lit. fish dragons), theyre a type of dragon lantern which supposedly has some characteristic of a fish. they are puppet-danced on sticks - dragon dancing, the classic. my mom and i both had a vivid image of this dragon-lantern-dancing, but we couldn't find it ANYWHERE. if anyone knows the right search query to pull this up, please lmk how to tame 谷大哥*. anyway, i left the lanterns implied because idk how the fuck to explain this whole thing in four syllables.

*lit. big bro google. its funnier in chinese

蛾儿雪柳黄金缕

this is the line that, when i finally bothered to properly research it, made everything about this translation click into place. these are all hair decorations. 蛾儿 (lit. li'l moth) are silk moths, 雪柳 (lit. snow willow) are silver tassels, and 黄金缕 (lit. yellow-golden cords) are gold cords lmao. hence golden silver silken sway, which was SO satisfying to come up with.

笑语盈盈暗香去

lit. laughing speech tinkles and faint fragrance goes by. this one is also fairly straightforward. 去 means to go, so we specifically want the image of a group of giggly teenage girls fading into the crowd.

众里寻他千百度。蓦然回首，那人却在 灯火阑珊处。

and finally we reach the most famous line, the 千古名句 (qiangumingju) - iconic line of a thousand histories!

lit. within the crowd, searching for him* in a thousand hundred directions; suddenly the head turns, it turns out that person is standing in the darkness where the lights have gone out.

*"him" is highly debated. 他, used in modern chinese like the pronoun "he", was historically a catchall pronoun for people of any gender. iirc, 她 for "she", and the gendered distinction, was only introduced when china started integrating to the west. in this line, 他 could be the teen girl that just passed by, or her beau. whichever way, one is the searcher, the other is the searched. i chose here to sidestep this by using i and you bc fuck gender.

anyway, when the searcher's head turns - even this bit had to be suitably poetic, a nightmare - they find their lover in the 灯火阑珊处.

灯火阑珊处 this phrase refers to a very specific image. imagine, in the early hours of the morning, a dwindling market street; the stands are closing one by one, lights winking out, leaving a gentle blanket of dark and calm behind. it is the quiet after the rain, the breath after the shout; it is the sigh of closing your front door at the end of the night. it's not the absence or complete lack of light, but rather the exit of it. a place of that just-left-behind dark is a 灯火阑珊处.

this sentence gave me so much grief and i am so proud to have done it even just a little bit of justice.

so after all that, the scene described by this poem is something like this: a lively late-night market street. people from many walks of life fill the path, celebrating the lantern festival, the turn of a new year and coming of spring, a riotous party of light and noise and joy. as the night slips into the sixteenth, the market begins winding down, stalls closing and lights winking out. amongst the teeming crowds ambling their way home, a young person searches for the their lover from whom they were separated; on some sudden instinct, they turn, to find their lover already looking back from the darkness of the fading festival, gaze caught in the divide between light and dark, wake and sleep: a quiet young love on the edge of spring, something fresh and new.

if anyone made it to this point, thank you and i hope this was an interesting read! please feel free to add comments questions and observations!! i would love to discuss at any level with someone other than my mom and chinese poetry truly is one of my passions even when it makes me want to kill, so i'm always down to talk. :] <3

[madamescarlette]

I heard that my dear Lu-est of Lus @swinging-stars-from-satellites wanted some poetry about the grief of growing older and dealing with the unbearable changing of time, so I made a little anthology/collection for that purpose! Links below for anyone else who might need some poet's comfort:

At Your Age, I Wore A Darkness, by Maggie Smith

Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower, Rainer Maria Rilke

Everyday Life, by Olav. H. Hauge

The Letter, by Linda Gregg

Most Days I Want to Live, by Gabrielle Calvocoressi

Heavy, by Mary Oliver

Grief, by Louise Erdrich

Untitled, by Xin Qiji

The Thing Is, by Ellen Bass

October, An Elegy, by Sue Goyette

The Waking, by Theodore Roethke

One Art, by Elizabeth Bishop (Gracie's poem! <3)

What the Living Do, by Marie Howe

and because at times I process things best using my own work, four of my own: The Grief of Growing Older, Answer, Room, and The Loss of One's Wings.