Willow
Tang dynasty・Li Shangyin
Classical Chinese-style Ballad
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How could it bear to await the clear autumn days, already bearing the setting sun and cicadas?
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- 无事小狗仙
- 2024-10-19 17:42
- 116 reads
Once I followed the east wind, brushing the dancing banquet; in Leyou's spring gardens, the days were heartbreaking.
How could they bear to reach the clear autumn days, already touched by slanting sunlight and cicada song?
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Translation
It once swayed with the east wind above banquets of song and dance, displaying its enchanting grace in the spring light of Leyou Garden. How can one bear to see it in the chilly autumn, already shrouded in the setting sun and enduring wave after wave of cicada cries?
Annotations
舞筵: a banquet with singing and dancing. 乐游: a scenic destination around Leyou Plain in Chang'an. 断肠: here chiefly describes being deeply moved by the beauty of spring scenery; it should not invariably be translated as sadness.
如何肯: how could one consent; how could one be reconciled to it. 清秋: clear, chilly autumn. 斜阳、蝉: the setting sun and cicadas together intensify the willow's waning, desolate condition.
Introduction
Reading guide: This quatrain on the willow juxtaposes springtime abundance with autumn desolation. Rather than detailing the precise colors of willow leaves, it uses banquets, famous gardens, the slanting sun, and cicada cries to portray changes in the world around the tree, suggesting the rise and fall of prosperity.
Commentary
“曾” (once) and “已” (already) draw two seasons together: the brighter the memories, the heavier the present loneliness. Willow branches brushing the banquet mats are a natural movement, yet in the setting of feasting and outings they seem to have joined in human celebrations.
The repeated “带” (bear) in the final line makes the setting sun and cicada calls seem like burdens piled upon the willow. “如何肯” (how could it consent) further gives the object a will of its own, turning a poem about a thing into a lament over the difficulty of keeping beautiful things.
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Chinese-style lyrical ballad
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Willow Shadows Carry Autumn's Song
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Fiction inspired by poetry
The Old Dancing Robe beneath the Willow
At forty-six, Liu Zhaozhao returns to the old garden, where the portrait hanging from a beam still shows her at seventeen. One autumn banquet and a fee of twenty taels could have paid for a sunny room; yet the notice recruiting apprentices has already used her name to promise someone else a future. Her old dance costume no longer fastens at the waist, while the girl in the courtyard corner still endures aching feet, waiting to be chosen. The lights are about to come on. Who should appear onstage?
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