Willow Branch Song
- Poetry of Liu Yuxi
The clear stream winds along, with willows overgrown;
The wooden bridge still stands, where twenty years have flown.
I parted here with my fair lady then;
Would she’d send word! Would she’d send word! I wish in vain again.
The exact year of this poem's composition is unknown; based on its content, it should be a work from Liu Yuxi's late years, recalling the past. The poet was passing by a plank bridge when he saw the willow branches by the river and suddenly remembered bidding farewell to a woman there twenty years before. Since then, there had been no word from her. The poem does not reveal who the woman was, does not explain why they parted back then, and does not tell how those twenty years were spent. Liu Yuxi simply presents the time (twenty years ago), the place (the plank bridge), the person (the beauty), and the outcome (no news), leaving the rest for the reader to feel. This use of negative space is precisely the brilliance of Tang poetry.
清江一曲柳千条，二十年前旧板桥。
曾与美人桥上别，恨无消息到今朝。
- 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.