薛涛诗
Poems of Xue Tao
Index
赠远二首
Distant Gift, in two verses
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芙蓉新落蜀山秋 锦字开缄到是愁 闺阁不知戎马事 月高还上望夫楼 |
Hibiscus newly wilted in Sichuan's autumn hills. These embroidered words reveal my hidden sadness. Women may know little of the ways of war But the moon still shines down on this lonely tower. |
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扰弱新蒲叶又齐 春深花落塞前溪 知君未转秦关骑 月照千门掩袖啼 |
Because they're weak, the cattails have all been flattened. Flowers wither at the pass although it's only spring. I know you cannot return from Qin Gate with your men. So in the moonlight, by the palace gate, I hide my flowing tears. |
-- 薛涛
废话
A poem from later in Xue Tao's time with Wei Gao perhaps. She may have stayed until his death and the passing of three more commanders. I know she admired the last of them. I doubt she cared much at all about the middle two. They weren't much to care about. But this poem could be about the last of the four. It's almost impossible to date any of her poems beyond "Chengdu courtesan," "Xichuan hostess," and "Daoist nun." Sometimes we can be a little more exact. But not much. The flowers and the moon, tears and war, are a constant. Her poetry is always rooted in her present point of view, which never needs elaboration. When you look through a telescope, it says nothing about itself.