A Spring Sigh
- Poetry of Jin Changzu
Drive the orioles away,
All their music from the trees....
When she dreamed that she went to Liaoxi Camp
To join him there, they wakened her
Poem translator: Kiang Kanghu
Five-character-quatrain
This poem was likely composed during the turbulent frontier wars of the Tang Dynasty, portraying a young wife's profound longing for her husband stationed far away in Liaoxi. With remarkable economy of language, the poet captures the quiet suffering of ordinary lives disrupted by war. Though brief, it stands as a masterpiece of Tang "boudoir lament" poetry.
This poem concerns a standard figure in this type of poetry, a lonely woman who is despondent over the absence of a husband or lover, probably a soldier who has gone to Liaoxi in present-day Mongolia. She chases away the orioles to stop their singing in the first couplet. The second couplet gives the reason. The bird songs interrupted her sweet morning dream to see her husband in the far away land. The words and phrases tug at her heart.
打起黄莺儿，莫教枝上啼。
啼时惊妾梦，不得到辽西。
- 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.