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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’.)
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.