No limit to the lotuses' fragrance
they match the color of your summer clothes
my darling, don't pole your boat
into places you can't get back from
I wish we could match the affection
of all those mandarin ducks
swimming around in pairs
close by your fishing rock.
无限荷香染暑衣，阮郎何处弄船归？
自惭不及鸳鸯侣，犹得双双近钓矶。
Seven-character poem
Li Duan (743-782) was a poet. And his friend Lu Lun (737-799) was also a poet. Lu wrote a parting poem for his friend Li entitled 李端公. Somehow, Yu Xuanji has learned that Li Duan liked to fish. And from what we have seen, Yu doesn't miss a chance to go fishing. So she writes Li Duan, now dead some 80 years, this poem. And that's all we know. A ruan (阮) is an ancient musical instrument and so becomes a symbol for poetry which achieved a height to which Yu's cannot reach.
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.
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.
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