曲江 / Twisting River

BY Li Shangyin
TRANSLATED BY Chloe Garcia Roberts
Chinese

望断平时翠辇过， 空闻子夜鬼悲歌。 / 金舆不返倾城色， 玉殿犹分下苑波。 / 死忆华亭闻唳鹤， 老忧王室泣铜驼。 / 天荒地变心虽折， 若比伤春意未多。

English

In the distance where my gaze breaks, the emperor’s emerald carriage passed.
In silence I listen, the singing grief of midnight ghosts.

The golden chariot never returned her, enchantment who enthralled a city.
Jade halls still part the waves in Lower Park.

In death, I will remember cranes crying at Huating Pavilion.
In old age, I mourn the imperial palace, weeping after its bronze camels.

Heaven became a wasteland. And though my heart foundered —
against the anguish of spring, meaningless.

 

Biography

李商隐（约812/813年 — 约858年），字义山，号玉溪生、樊南生。晚唐诗人。其诗构思风格独特，隐晦迷离，以无题诗著名，也有多首爱情诗为人传诵。

LI SHANGYIN (813-859) was a poet from the late Tang era. His works are famous for their lush and obscure imagery. During his lifetime, Li Shangyin held various posts as a low-level government official and though his poetry and prose were appreciated within certain literary circles, his status as one of the most important poets of his time was not recognized until after his death.

CHLOE GARCIA ROBERTS is a poet and translator living in the Boston area. Her poems, translations and criticism have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Poetry International, Zoland Poetry, and CutBank. She has received awards and grants from the Jerome Foundation, the Summer Literary Seminars, and the Vermont Studio Center. She is an editor at Zoland Poetry and associate curator of the Woodberry Poetry Room at Harvard.

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