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The Works of Li Qingzhao, Ci Poems 3.41 - 3.48
The sixth 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 3.41 through 3.48, inclusive.
How to Read Chinese Poetry has three chapters on the ci forms Li Qingzhao uses here:
Recall from the introduction that everything after 3.35 is relatively likely to be misattributed. This is especially true after 3.45: these may be written deliberately 'in Li Qingzhao's style'.
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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)
Recall from the introduction that everything after 3.35 is relatively likely to be misattributed. This is especially true after 3.45: these may be written deliberately 'in Li Qingzhao's style'.
If you’d like to be added to the reminder email list, let me know the address you wish to be contacted via. (You can also unsubscribe from the reminders at any time simply by replying ‘unsubscribe’.)
3.44
素約小腰身
不奈傷春。
疏梅影下晚妝新。
裊裊婷婷何樣似 一縷輕雲。
歌巧動朱唇
字字嬌嗔。 桃花深徑一通津。
悵望瑤臺清夜月
還照歸輪。
To the tune “Waves Scour the Sand”
Her small waist, wrapped tight in white silk, cannot prevent spring sadness. Her evening makeup is fresh, in plum blossom shadows.
What does it resemble, her lithe swaying form? A single thread of wispy cloud.
Her crimson lips move as she sings skillfully,
Word after word, feigning a pout. Peach blossoms on a hidden path lead to a river crossing.1
She gazes sadly at the clear moon over Jasper Terrace2 that shines on his departing carriage wheels.
Re: 3.44
Man this poet (if all one body of work) is obsessed with spring, and failing that, autumn—you’d think there weren’t other seasons. Always winter and never Christmas.
“What does it resemble, her lithe swaying form? A single thread of wispy cloud.” Awkward in a way that the ultimate realisation of female beauty is: being insubstantial, almost as good as not existing
“This line alludes to the story of Liu Chen 劉晨 and Ruan Zhao 阮肇 (Han dynasty), who followed a mountain stream lined by peach trees to a love tryst with goddesses they encountered. When they returned to the mortal world, they discovered that the few months they had spent with their lovers had lasted several generations of worldly time.” God this is so EXACTLY the fae lover motif from Western literature??
This makes it sound like possibly the poem’s speaker is one of these goddesses, abandoned.
Re: 3.44