鱼玄机诗

Poems of Yu Xuanji


Index

闻李端公垂钓回寄赠

On Learning that Li Duan was a Fisherman, I Wrote Him this Poem


无限荷香染暑衣
阮郎何处弄船归
自惭不及鸳鸯侣
犹得双双近钓矶

Boundless lotus fragrance stains your summer clothes.
Old musician, to where will your wandering boat return?
I'm ashamed not to be good enough to be your true companion,
Especially when, together, we could angle from these rocks.

-- 鱼玄机


废话

Li Duan (743-782) was a poet. And his friend Lu Lun (737-799) was also a poet. Lu wrote a parting poem for his friend Li entitled 李端公. Somehow, Yu Xuanji has learned that Li Duan liked to fish. And from what we have seen, Yu doesn't miss a chance to go fishing. So she writes Li Duan, now dead some 80 years, this poem. And that's all we know. A ruan (阮) is an ancient musical instrument and so becomes a symbol for poetry which achieved a height to which Yu's cannot reach.


Index