王昌齡 Wang Changling: 春宮曲 A Song of Spring in the Palace

This was first posted on 23 June 2022, but was inadvertently deleted today (31 July 2022).  Here, I am re-posting it.

Wang Changling (698-757): A Song of Spring in the Palace

 

1                Last night, to Dew Pond came vernal breezes, sending peach-blooms a-blow.

2                Tonight, at the front of Undying Palace, a full moon, from on high, shines so.

3                The emperor’s sister’s song-dance lady, now his majesty’s newfound love,

4                For the odd spring chills from out of the screens, a brocaded robe to bestow.  

 

Translated by Andrew W.F. Wong (Huang Hongda)    譯者: 黃宏發

15 October 2021 (revised 18.10.2021; 20.10.2021) (polished 20.6.2022)

Translated from the original - 王昌齡: 春宮曲

 

1                昨夜風開露井桃

2                未央前殿月輪高

3                平陽歌舞新承寵

4                簾外春寒賜錦袍

 

Notes:

 

*Form, Metre, and Rhyme:  The original is a 7-character quatrain with a caesura after the fourth character.  This English rendition is in heptameter (7 beats or feet) with a caesura after the fourth beat.  The rhyme scheme of the original is AAxA which is followed in this English rendition.

 

*Line 1:  風 (wind) is rendered as “came vernal breezes”, with “breezes” used and “vernal” added to soften the winds and to state it is springtime.  I suggest reading the word “came” unstressed.  The third character 開 (open) means 開花 (bloom or blow), and the seventh character 桃 (peach) refers to peach flowers (not peach trees nor their fruits), thus, 開 … 桃 is rendered as “sending peach-blooms a-blow”.  露井 (uncovered, or dew; water well) is taken to refer to an uncovered well, but which can be as extensive as a pond, hence, (i) uncovered? and (ii) to collect dew and rainwater? I wonder!  I have, therefore, decided to include in my rendition the meaning of both “uncovered” and “dew”, and have turned the common noun 露井 into a proper noun, not transliterated as “Lujing”, but rendered as “Dew Pond”, with the word “Dew” to cover the meaning of 露 as “dew” and with the word “Pond” to hint at the meaning of 露 as “uncovered” because of the size of the uncovered well to be named “Pond”.

 

*Line 2:  未央 (no; demise) (pronounced “Weiyang”) is the name of a palace 宮 in the Han 漢 dynasty (BCE 206 -CE 220) and is rendered as “Undying Palace” rather than transliterated as “Weiyang Palace”.  前殿 (front; chamber) refers to the front chamber of the said palace and is rendered as “at the front of (Undying Palace)”.  月輪 (moon; wheel) means “a full moon” (the moon is round like a wheel) and is rendered as such, and 高 (high) is translated literally as “from on high”.  To begin the line, I have added “Tonight” to clarify the poem’s 2-night timeframe as I see it.  And to end the line, I have added “shines so” (which meaning is implied) to fit the rhyme scheme.

 

*Line 3:  This line, in effect the whole poem, is an allusion to the love story of Emperor Wudi 武帝 (BCE 156-87) of the Han 漢 dynasty and the emperor’s sister’s songstress Wei Zifu 衛子夫 who was favoured and called to the palace by the emperor.  歌舞 refers not to “singing and dancing”, but to the person performing the song and dance, and is rendered here as “song-dance lady”.  平陽 (level; sun) refers to Princess Pingyang 平陽公主 who was Emperor Wudi’s elder sister, the princess being married to the Marquis of Pingyang 平陽侯.  For clarity, 平陽 is here not transliterated as “Princess Pingyang”, but rendered as “The emperor’s sister('s)”.  新承寵 (newly; receiving; grace) is rendered as “now his majesty’s newfound love” after considering “newfound mate”.

 

*Line 4:  春寒 (spring; cold) is translated literally as “spring chills”.  簾外 (screen; outside) is not taken to mean “chills outside the screens” (= chills outdoors), but interpreted to mean “chills from outside the screens” (= chills from outside coming indoors).  簾外春寒 is, thus, rendered as “For the odd spring chills from out of the screens”, with “from” added to accord with this interpretation, and “odd” (= irregular, hence, infrequent) added to heighten the emperor’s grace.  賜錦袍 (bestow; brocade; robe) is translated literally as “a brocaded robe to bestow”, with an unstressed syllable “-ded” added between “brocade” and “robe”, to produce a better flow of stressed and unstressed syllables.