The Works of Li Qingzhao, Ci Poems 3.17 - 3.24

[x_los]

The thrilling third instalment of Li Qingzhao’s ci poetry. This book is freely available via De Gruyter's Library of Chinese Humanities in Mandarin and English and via several publication formats, including two open access options (the pdf appears to be better formatted than the ebook). We're reading the poems 3.17 through 3.24, inclusive.

Four of this week’s poems have endnotes, but these offer only small points of Chinese language exegesis. 

How to Read Chinese Poetry has three chapters on the ci forms Li Qingzhao uses here:

 

Chapter 12, Ci Poetry: Short Song Lyrics (Xiaoling) 

Chapter 13, Ci Poetry: Long Song Lyrics (Manci) 

Chapter 14, Ci Poetry: Long Song Lyrics on Objects (Yongwu Ci)

This week, we look at Chapter 12 as recommended additional reading. 

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Comments

3.22

[x_los]

訴衷情

夜來沈醉卸妝遲。
梅萼插殘枝。
酒醒熏破春睡
夢遠不成歸。
人悄悄
月依依。
翠簾垂。
更挼殘蕊
更撚餘香
更得些時。

To the tune “Telling My Deepest Feelings”

Drunk last night, I delayed taking off my make-up.
A withered sprig of plum blossoms still sits in my hair. Sobering up now, their scent interrupts my spring sleep,
my distant dream did not carry me home.
No sounds of people now,
the moon hangs longingly in the sky. The green blinds are lowered.
Again, I toy with the fading flowers, pinching out, again, what fragrance remains, to make it last, again, a little longer.

Re: 3.22

[x_los]

"green blinds" any reason they're green?

This one's really evocative, this works great

Re: 3.22

[superborb]

Interestingly, the Baike vernacular tl turns the blinds into a book?? But the exegesis says that by adding concrete details to the scene, it increases the tranquility of the scene, and the 'lowered' adds to the stillness of the night