The Summer Palace
- Poetry of Yuan Zhen
In the faded old imperial palace,
Peonies are red, but no one comes to see them....
The ladies-in-waiting have grown white-haired
Debating the pomps of Emperor Xuanzong.
Five-character-quatrain
This poem was composed by Yuan Zhen while recalling the desolate scene of the abandoned Shangyang Palace in Luoyang during the Tang Dynasty. Once one of the most magnificent palaces during Emperor Xuanzong's reign, Shangyang Palace became a secluded place where many palace ladies were secretly confined after the Tianbao era, isolated from the outside world for over forty years. The poem vividly portrays these palace ladies who spent long, lonely years within these walls, expressing the poet's sympathy for their fate and his lament over the vicissitudes of prosperity and decline.
寥落古行宫，宫花寂寞红。
白头宫女在，闲坐说玄宗。
- 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.
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