English Rendering
In Royal Garden, orioles flit, flit through the scene,
At Kunming Lake, lush rushes grow, unseen.
How precious yet how vain spring's glorious hours!
Why face the mirror, cherishing transient flowers?
Imitation: Lament of a Courtesan
- Poetry of Liu Fangping
《拟娼楼节怨》
Original Text (中文原文)
上苑离离莺度，昆明幂幂蒲生。
时光春华可惜，何须对镜含情。
Analysis & Context
This work by the Tang Dynasty poet Liu Fangping takes an imagined "Courtesan's Festival" as its theme—not a real holiday, but a scenario personifying the feelings of a singing girl or courtesan, expressing the regret in women's quarters over the passage of time and fading youth. Liu Fangping lived during the Tang Dynasty’s transition from prosperity to decline, an era when many scholars harbored anxieties. He often used persona pieces to convey female perspectives, channeling his own reflections. While the poem superficially depicts spring scenes in the palace gardens and a woman’s emotions, it embodies deeper concerns about the fleetingness of time and the emptiness of life.
Reader's Companion
The Essence of the Verse
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.
Reading Between the Lines
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.
- The Lotus-Gathering Song
- Hymns of Harmony: Song of a Banished Beauty
- Imitation: Lament of a Courtesan
- The Bronze Terrace Courtesan
- Song of the Roosting Crows I
- Song of the Roosting Crows II
- The Summit Temple
- <Prelude to Water Melody> Sent to Ziyou on Mid-autumn Festival
- Invitation to Wine
- Question and Answer in the Mountains
- Cold sheet
- Coming Home ( Returning Home )
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