A Song of the Southern River
- Poetry of Li Yi
Since I married the merchant of Qutang
He has failed each day to keep his word....
Had I thought how regular the tide is,
I might rather have chosen a river-boy.
Folk-song-styled-verse
This Tang dynasty poem belongs to the "boudoir plaint" genre, portraying the resentment of a merchant's wife left alone at home awaiting her husband's uncertain return. During the Tang era's commercial prosperity, merchants frequently traveled for business, leaving their wives in perpetual expectation. Such "boudoir plaint" poems generally fall into two categories: missing soldier-husbands and resenting merchant-husbands, with this work being a quintessential example of the latter. The poet employs straightforward language to vividly capture the merchant wife's psychological state, enhanced by ingenious metaphors that amplify the poetic expression.
嫁得瞿塘贾，朝朝误妾期。
早知潮有信，嫁与弄潮儿。
- 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.