薛涛诗
Poems of Xue Tao
Index
谒巫山庙
Visiting Wizard Mountain Temple
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乱猿啼处访高唐 路入烟霞草木香 山色未能忘宋玉 水声犹是哭襄王 |
Where wild apes cry, I pass into high emptiness, as the road enters mists and all is fragrant. This beauty cannot make me forget my precious jewel, though the river's voice is a king's sad cry for help. |
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朝朝夜夜阳台下 为雨为云楚国亡 惆怅庙前多少柳 春来空斗画眉长 |
On any day or night, upon the balcony, beneath rain or clouds, this temple speaks of Chu's demise. When spring comes, all the sad willows in the garden fight their uselessness by painting dark their brows. |
-- 薛涛
废话
For clarity. The precious jewel is what Daoist inner alchemy focuses on developing inside the abdomen. It is an experienced reality and not mere religious belief. Chu is the Kingdom of Chu, perhaps the early builder of this temple. I do not know what king is crying, Chu's or Tang's. By Xue Tao's middle years the Tang is in full decline. Willows are both a symbol of virtue and of women's beauty. And often they are likened to dark eyebrows as they overhang the water. This temple on Wushan (巫山) could be the same as Silk Washing Temple in Yu Xuanji's poem. It is the same mountain above the Three Gorges and both women are Daoists.
As far as I can tell, this is a full-blown regulated poem. It has the right number of lines, length of lines, and phrasing. It is phrased in a straightforward way, each pair of lines a couplet. It may be Xue Tao purposefully holds back her art when she writes for the average man. Or it may be that, over the course of her life and her friendship with poets like Yuan Zhen, she becomes better and better at her art. One supposes this poems comes later in her life after she has taken Daoist orders, is more independent, and so can travel.