Joy of Cosmic Harmony: The Cricket’s Song
- Poetry of Jiang Kui
First, the sorrowful poet chanted his dirge—
Then came the cricket’s whispered lament,
Dripping with dew on bronze doorplates,
Seeping through moss-choked stone wells,
In all the places it once sang.
A mournful tune, like pleading.
Sleepless, the longing wife rises
To pace by her loom.
Winding screen-painted hills—
What loneliness aches in the cooling night?
Rain taps softly at the west window.
For whom does this chirping start and stop,
Matching the pound of laundry mallets?
At frontier inns, it greets autumn;
In abandoned palaces, it mourns the moon—
A thousand other heartbreaks unfold.
The Book of Odes once casually praised it.
Children laugh, lighting lanterns by the fence—
But when its song is strung into zither strings,
Note by note, the sorrow deepens.
Composed during the Southern Song Dynasty, Jiang Kui's ci poem uses autumn cricket chirps as a motif to convey profound melancholy and reflections on personal destiny. Though focused on a small subject, through layered metaphors and symbolic imagery, it blends personal sorrow with national grief, creating a profound and expansive artistic conception. Historical allusions to Yu Xin and the "Bin Odes" enrich its emotional depth, subtly reflecting mid-Southern Song poets' nostalgia for the lost northern capital and lamentation over national collapse.
庾郎先自吟愁赋，凄凄更闻私语。
露湿铜铺，苔侵石井，都是曾听伊处。
哀音似诉。正思妇无眠，起寻机杼。
曲曲屏山，夜凉独自甚情绪？
西窗又吹暗雨。为谁频断续，相和砧杵？
候馆迎秋，离宫吊月，别有伤心无数。
豳诗漫与。笑篱落呼灯，世间儿女。
写入琴丝，一声声更苦。
- Why Chinese poems is so special?
- The most distinctive features of Chinese poetry are: concision- many poems are only four lines, and few are much longer than eight; ambiguity- number, tense and parts of speech are often undetermined, creating particularly rich interpretative possibilities; and structure- most poems follow quite strict formal patterns which have beauty in themselves as well as highlighting meaningful contrasts.
- How to read a Chinese poem?
- Like an English poem, but more so. Everything is there for a reason, so try to find that reason. Think about all the possible connotations, and be aware of the different possibilities of number and tense. Look for contrasts: within lines, between the lines of each couplet and between successive couplets. Above all, don't worry about what the poet meant- find your meaning.