薛涛诗
Poems of Xue Tao
Index
江边
Beside the River
|
西风忽报雁双双 人世心形两自降 不为鱼肠有真诀 谁能梦梦立清江 |
West wind suddenly brings wild geese in pairs. In this world, we must each tame our own heart. The entrails of these fish cannot reveal our true fate. Who can deceive themselves beside this clear river? |
-- 薛涛
废话
I bet whoever Xue Tao wrote this for didn't stay. Idiot. In these personal poems, everything seems to be of a higher level of poetry than in the more official ones. The language is clearer and finer. The vocabulary broadens. This poem might come from her days after serving as district hostess, when she was independent and on her own. Those are nicer, as she says here, when you are not all on your own.
I was thinking about this poem. It seems to me that the two of them must have been fishing. And not just fishing but gutting the fish and cooking them over a small fire. A little wine. A little rice brought wrapped in leaves. Something like this. Otherwise, the fish guts would not have made it into the poem.