薛涛诗
Poems of Xue Tao
Index
柳絮
Willow Catkins
|
二月杨花轻复微 春风摇荡惹人衣 他家本是无情物 一任南飞又北飞 |
It's March and the poplars are already budding. Spring winds blow everyone's clothes awry. Other people's houses are always so cold. Willow catkins just go north or south with the wind. |
-- 薛涛
废话
Trying to understand Xue Tao means we must remember that she was an orphan who was sold into the courtesan's guild. She might have been abandoned by her mother. She had enough status to have some independence as a courtesan. But she would have had to do the job in a way that made it pay. So she probably did a lot of things she would have preferred not to do. Unlike some of the other women poets of the Tang, Xue Tao would not have been ignorant of the double entendre of expressions like "spring wind." This could be a relatively early poem from her Chengdu years. But it seems more poetic than poems which are obviously of that time. I would think this is a later poem, looking back at her life, watching catkins blow in the wind.