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Wú TíUntitled (Hard Is the Meeting) 无题
Li Shangyin's silkworm and candle: love until death.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
相见时难别亦难
xiāng jiàn shí nán bié yì nán
东风无力百花残
dōng fēng wú lì bǎi huā cán
春蚕到死丝方尽
chūn cán dào sǐ sī fāng jìn
蜡炬成灰泪始干
là jù chéng huī lèi shǐ gān
晓镜但愁云鬓改
xiǎo jìng dàn chóu yún bìn gǎi
夜吟应觉月光寒
yè yín yīng jué yuè guāng hán
蓬山此去无多路
péng shān cǐ qù wú duō lù
青鸟殷勤为探看
qīng niǎo yīn qín wèi tàn kān
Simplified characters; traditional title: 無題.
English translation
Hard it is for us to meet and hard to part;
The east wind is powerless, and flowers wither.
The spring silkworm spins silk till death ends its art;
The candle weeps till it turns to ash, tears never dry.
At dawn she frets to see her cloudlike hair grow thin;
At night she feels the chill of moonlight while she sings.
The fairy mountain is not far from where we are;
Bluebird, be kind—go seek her out for me.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
The second couplet is one of the most quoted love lines in Chinese. Its puns intensify it: 丝 (silk) sounds like 思 (longing), and candle wax "weeps." The images say that love and suffering end only with death. The third couplet imagines the beloved's sorrow, and the last sends a mythical bluebird, messenger of the Queen Mother of the West, across the short but impassable distance.
Background
One of Li Shangyin's untitled poems. Whether it describes a secret love, a Daoist nun, or his hopes for a patron is unknown.
Key words
- 东风 dōng fēng
- east wind, spring wind
- 丝 sī
- silk, punning on 思 "longing"
- 蜡炬 là jù
- candle
- 青鸟 qīng niǎo
- bluebird, a divine messenger
About the poet: Li Shangyin
Li Shangyin wrote dense, allusive and beautiful poems, many of them untitled love poems whose meaning is still debated. Caught between court factions, he never rose high in office.
Lifetime: c. 813–858. Other famous works: Night Rain: Sent North (夜雨寄北); Climbing Leyou Plain (登乐游原); Untitled (Hard Is the Meeting) (无题); The Ornate Zither (锦瑟); Clearing at Dusk (晚晴); Drunk Beneath the Flowers (花下醉); Frost and Moon (霜月).
More by Li Shangyin
- Climbing Leyou Plain登乐游原
- Night Rain: Sent North夜雨寄北
- The Ornate Zither锦瑟
- Clearing at Dusk晚晴
- Drunk Beneath the Flowers花下醉
- Frost and Moon霜月