When the moon fell,i wandered on the riverside,
the shadows of trees were slant and small.
Who would know my sorrow in the spring?
cold wind brought your fragrance to my head.
Swans have gone,everything has changed.
Cute flowers,distant dreams,at the lonely growl
of the cuckoos,are you understanding
my love has turned blue blood and hued
into the leaves of bamboo?
人绕湘皋月坠时。斜横花树小，浸愁漪。
一春幽事有谁知。东风冷、香远茜裙归。
鸥去昔游非。遥怜花可可，梦依依。
九疑云杳断魂啼。相思血，都沁绿筠枝。
Composed in 1086 during the Southern Song Dynasty, this ci poem was written when Jiang Kui resided in Tanzhou (modern Changsha, Hunan). Nestled along the Xiang River with its humid climate, Changsha was renowned as a haven for red plum blossoms. While ostensibly celebrating the local plum blossoms, the work is in fact a lyrical vessel for the poet's nostalgia for a lost love and profound sorrow of separation. As scholar Xia Chengtao's research reveals, Jiang's parting with his "Hefei lover" invariably coincided with plum blossom season, making his numerous plum poems—including this one—disguised elegies for that relationship.
Classical Chinese poetry thrives on Concision and Ambiguity. Without tense or number, the words create a timeless space where the reader becomes the co-creator of the poem's meaning.
Look for Contrasts: light and shadow, movement and stillness. Don't just translate the words; feel the Yijing (artistic conception) that lingers long after the last character.
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