徐惠诗
Poems of Xu Hui
Index
长门怨
Tall Gate Lament
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旧爱柏梁台 新宠昭阳殿 守分辞芳辇 含情泣团扇 |
Old love is in a cedar-beamed tower While new favorite is in the sunlit hall. She accepts her lot, avoids the emperor's carraige, Shows her feelings as she weeps into her fan. |
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一朝歌舞荣 夙昔诗书贱 颓恩诚已矣 覆水难重荐 |
All morning, she hears them sing and dance. Day and night, they hold propriety cheap. Withdrawal of his favor is complete. She accepts that she will not be his again. |
-- 鮑君徽
废话
The poem recalls the Han Emperor Wudi's empress, who was placed in the Tall Gate Palace and was replaced in the emperor's affections by a newer favorite. I have the quite unsubstantiated feeling that, given Xu Hui's timeline, she is not afraid of this for herself. She is writing, perhaps to the emperor, of someone she herself is replacing. Perhaps it is the lovely dancer from the surviving poetic essay of Xu Hui's.