薛涛诗

Poems of Xue Tao


Index

试新服裁制初成三首

Trying to Make My Own Clothes, I Succeed for the First Time, in three verses


紫阳宫里赐红绡
仙雾朦胧隔海遥
霜兔毳寒冰茧净
嫦娥笑指织星桥

Setting sunlight in the palace, a gift of red silk.
Mists are dimming the moon that rises on the lake.
Moon rabbit shivers in a clear coccoon of ice
And Chang E smiles as the Bridge of Birds appears.

九气分为九色霞
五灵仙驭五云车
春风因过东君舍
偷样人间染百花

Nine spirits divide into nine rosy mists.
Five magic immortals ride upon five clouds.
From the East Lord's mansion come the winds of spring
That stealthily cover the human world in blossoms.

长裾本是上清仪
曾逐群仙把玉芝
每到宫中歌舞会
折腰齐唱步虚词

Long gown panels were originally for pure rights.
Once we chased immortals to take their jade mushrooms.
Now whenever I arrive at a dance in the palace, you must
Admire my waist and my singing with appropriate empty words.

-- 薛涛


废话

I think this poem comes from Xue Tao's early years with Wei Gao. And I think it shows their mutual affection. The poem is an exaggerated poem, the enthusiasm of someone still young. Someone happy. You would think the two of them were in love. Or she, at least, is in love with Wei Gao. We have no record of his thoughts. The moon rabbit is the one who eternally pounds the medicine of immortality in a pestle. Chang E is the woman in the moon. The Bridge of Birds is the bridge of magpies which on the seventh day of the seventh moon allows the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl to reunite for a night. The East Lord is god of the sun and of spring. And it looks like Wei Gao is the one who turned Xue Tao on to mushrooms. Come to think of it, this poem is a little trippy...


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