無題(其二) 李商隱

無題(其二)     李商隱 (813-858)

重幃深下莫愁堂，臥後清宵細細長。
神女生涯原是夢，小姑居處本無郎。
風波不信菱枝弱，月露誰教桂葉香。
直道相思了無益，未妨惆悵是清狂。

Untitled (Poem No. 2)     Li Shangyin (813-858)

Layers of portieres drape over and over the Singer Mo Chou Hall,

After going to bed she finds the serene night passes really slow,

The life of a fairy hetaera is only chapters of dream cameos,

This single girl is living alone without a spousal,

The stormy waves wouldn’t believe caltrop stems are fragile and keep up their jostles,

From the fragrant osmanthus leaves the moon dews drivel,

Just pining for lovesick is inutile,

She’d rather her dismals turn into hysteroid.

無題 李商隱

無題           李商隱 (813-858)

鳳尾香羅薄几重，碧文圓頂夜深縫。

扇裁月魄羞難掩，車走雷聲語未通。

曾是寂寥金燼暗，斷無消息石榴紅。

斑騅只繫垂楊岸，何處西南任好風。

Untitled           Li Shangyin (813-858)

How many layers has the silken chiffon embellished with the fern leaf ilk?

With it she makes into verdant round hats deep into midnight still,
She tries to cover her face with a fan as round as the moon but she still stays bashful,
When her carriage moves it rambles like thunderbolt,
So no one hears what she reveals,
As my golden lamp burns out its candles,
The room falls into a dim dark pale.
In the fifth month when the pomegranate blossoms turn vermeil,
She still has not had me approached,
I could only tie my dappled horse to the shore weeping willows,
To the southwest I’ll ride on the wind blows.

 

 

籌筆驛 李商隱

籌筆驛     李商隱 (813-858)

猿鳥猶疑畏簡書，風雲常為護儲胥。

徒令上將揮神筆，終見降王走傳車。

管樂有才原不忝，關張無命欲何如。

他年錦里經祠廟，梁父吟成恨有餘。

The Expeditionary Campaign Planning Station    
Li Shangyin (813-858)
Even now the apes and birds here hold the Chancellor’s Proclamation of Expedition with awe,
The winds and clouds are still carefully guarding the barricades of the citadel,
The great statesman general had just inanely wasted his efforts with his mighty brush writing tool,
Everything eventually came down to the Second Ruler of Shu went surrendering on his heels,
The great Chancellor would have measured up to the abilities of Guan Zhong and Le Yi by any scale,
But Generals Guan and Zhang had no blessings whatsoever Providential,
If somehow by chance I pass the Shu Chancellor Temple,
In chanting his famous “The Song of Liang Fu” I’ll be plagued by unrenting dismals.

春雨 李商隱

春雨   李商隱 (813-858)

悵臥新春白袷衣，白門寥落意多違。

紅樓隔雨相望冷，珠箔飄燈獨自歸。

遠路應悲春晼晚，殘宵猶得夢依稀。

玉璫緘札何由達，萬里雲羅一雁飛。

Spring Rain     Li Shangyin (813-858)

Lying in glum in my white early spring mantle,
Living desolately in Jinling I find everything in life running against my will,
Looking through the rain over to the red chamber shrouded in chills,
Through the pearl portiere I find her back by herself under the flickering lamp glow,
The long distance between us heaps the fading of the vernal glamour with sorrows,
In the depth of the night I still seem to be able to see her in my dream cameos,
Enclosing a pair of jade earrings in my billet-doux but how can they to you be posted,
I can only entrust it to the wild geese in the clouds to bringing them over to you through ten thousand miles.

賈生 李商隱

賈生     李商隱 (813-858)
宣室求賢訪逐臣，

賈生才調更無倫。
可憐夜半虛前席，

不問蒼生問鬼神。

Jia Yi        Li Shangyin (813-858)

Emperor Wen of Han sought the advice of the cashiered meritorious and sagacious courtiers in the Palace Cozy Hall,

Among them Jia Yi was the most ingeniously and sagaciously incomparable,
Modestly at midnight the Emperor let him take the chair to preside over a huddle,
What a shame it was not the wellbeing of the people but the fate of the House of Han the Emperor wanted to know.

 

瑤池 李商隱

瑤池    李商隱 (813-858)
瑤池阿母綺窗開，

黃竹歌聲動地哀。
八駿日行三萬里，

穆王何事不重來。

The Celestial Pool      Li Shangyin (813-858)

The Goddess Xi Wang has her verdant casement pulled off,

Presently comes the grievous mournful song of the Yellow Bamboo,
The eight coursers of King Mu of Zhou could daily travel eighty thousand miles,
There’s no reason why he has not yet recalled.

 

隋宮 李商隱

隋宮    李商隱 (813-858)
乘興南遊不戒嚴，

九重誰省諫書函。
春風舉國裁宮錦，

半作障泥半作帆。

The Sojourn Palaces of the Emperor of Sui        

Li Shangyin (813-858)

Taking a whim to gad around in the South he made no curfew at nightfall,

No one in the court took heed of the remonstrative memorials,
Tribute brocades for the Emperor’s fun amidst the soothing vernal zephyr came in from all parts of the empire realms,
Half of them were made into saddle clothes and the rest for boat sails.

 

為有 李商隱

為有    李商隱 (813-858)
為有雲屏無限嬌，

鳳城寒盡怕春宵。
無端嫁得金龜婿，

辜負香衾事早朝。

All Because      Li Shangyin (813-858)

All because she is captivated by the ravishing cloudscape painting on the panel,

Chilly wintry nights have ended but here cone what she loathes most the short spring nights in the Capital,
Inadvertently marrying to a man highly exulted,
Leaving her alone in her fragrant boudoir to attend morning levees with His Lord Imperial.

 

寄令狐郎中 李商隱

寄令狐郎中     李商隱 (813-858)
嵩雲秦樹久離居，

雙鯉迢迢一紙書。
休問梁園舊賓客，

茂陵秋雨病相如。

To Chancellery Official Linghu    Li Shangyin (813-858)

Long apart by the clouds over Mt. Song and the trees in Qinzhou we have been pulled,

Remotely far far afield we are linked only by epistles,
Don’t broach on the whereabouts of the honoured guest who frequented the gardens of the Prince of Liang in times of old,
He lies ailing in Mao Ling amidst autumnal squalls.

 

夜雨寄北 李商隱

夜雨寄北     李商隱 (813-858)
君問歸期未有期，

巴山夜雨漲秋池。
何當共剪西窗燭，

卻話巴山夜雨時。

Posting to the North Amidst the Night Rain      

Li Shangyin (813-858)

You ask when I will return but there is no fixed date for my recoil,

Here in Bashan the night rain swells the autumnal pool,
When shall we coze while trimming the candle under the west window,
On this night rain in Bashan we tattle?

 

隋宮 李商隱

隋宮     李商隱 (813-858)
紫泉宮殿鎖煙霞，欲取蕪城作帝家。
玉璽不緣歸日角，錦帆應是到天涯。
于今腐草無螢火，終古垂楊有暮鴉。
地下若逢陳後主，豈宜重問後庭花。

Sui Palaces              Li Shangyin (813-858)

The purple spring waters have the old Sui palaces occluded and encircled,

The emperor of Sui once tried to take Wu City to be his imperial abode,
Had the chosen emperor Tai Zong not been bestowed the imperial seal of rule,
The emperor of Sui would have been travelling in his grand ship of brocade sail to end of world,
Now these palaces of Sui are dilapidated strewing with rotten grasses devoid even of worm glows,
These weeping ancient willows sans crows in yore days are now teeming with evening crows,
If the emperor of Sui ever comes across the second ruler of Chen in the netherworld,
Would he care to broach on the subject of the debauched song of the times The Backyard Blows.

 

無題(其二) 李商隱

無題(其二)     李商隱 (813-858)
颯颯東風細雨來，芙蓉塘外有輕雷。
金蟾嚙鎖燒香入，玉虎牽絲汲井回。
賈氏窺簾韓掾少，宓妃留枕魏王才。
春心莫共花爭發，一寸相思一寸灰。

Untitled (Poem No.2)            Li Shangyin (813-858)

Amidst rustling rustles of the east wind come mizzles,

Beyond the lotus pond crackles a light thunder bolt,
Through the locks wisps of smoke from the gold toads animated burner whirl round the water pails,
You’ve probably returned from drawing water from the silk hooped jade tiger trolley attached well,
The daughter of Jia Yun had a crush on his handsome young vassal,
Admiring his literary ingenuity the Naiad of River Luo gifted Prince Zhi of Wai a lover token pillow,
Don’t burn out your spring yearnings with the vernal blows,
Every inch of lovesick turns out into an inch of ash coal.

 

北青蘿 李商隱

北青蘿   李商隱 (813-858)

殘陽西入崦，茅屋訪孤僧。
落葉人何在，寒雲路幾層。
獨敲初夜磬，閑倚一枝藤。
世界微塵裏，吾寧愛與憎。

The North Mt Qing Luo Temple      Li Shangyin (813-858)

To the west behind the mountains the sun goes,

At the solitary monk’s bower I call,
Seeing not the man but just find leaves fall,
Through how many layers of chilly clouds have I scrambled,
Solitarily he beats the stone chime as night falls,
On a rattan he leisurely lolls,
In this a minute dust particle of a world,
Love and hatred are nothing but only vile.

 

 

 

涼思 李商隱

涼思        李商隱 (813-858)

客去波平檻，蟬休露滿枝。
永懷當此節，倚立自移時。
北斗兼春遠，南陵寓使遲。
天涯占夢數，疑誤有新知。

Muse Amidst the Cool        Li Shangyin (813-858)

After my guest left pond water flush with the balustrade swell,
Cicadas gone leaving dews from the tree branches dangle,
This is the moment I always dearly hold,
By the casement I idly loll,
Far remote are spring and the Star of the North Pole,
My friend in Nanling takes too long on his well being to have me posted,
At end of world only by divining my dreams could I have his situation foretold,
I suspect he has already made a new confidant pal.

 

 

落花 李商隱

落花     李商隱 (813-858)
高閣客竟去，小園花亂飛。
參差連曲陌，迢遞送斜暉。
腸斷未忍掃，眼穿仍欲歸。
芳心向春盡，所得是沾衣。

Fallen Flowers       Li Shangyin (813-858)

Eventually gone are the ones in the high chamber,

In the little garden fallen flowers flitter,
Across the field moles they scatter,
Seeing the setting sun off from afar,
With a bruised soul I bear not to sweep them over,
Away spring finally goes despite how desperately for it to stay I hanker,
With spring gone my fervent ambitions also expire,
Leaving on my clothes only my own tears.

 

風雨 李商隱

風雨    李商隱 (813-858)
凄涼寶劍篇，羈泊欲窮年。
黃葉仍風雨，青樓自管弦。
新知遭薄俗，舊好隔良緣。
心斷新豐酒，銷愁又幾千。

Storms        Li Shangyin (813-858)

The famous article the Treasured Sword thrills me with sorrows,

Wretchedly gadding on the tramp all these years I’ve straggled,
Like a yellow leaf flittering in the stormy gale,
People revel with abandon in dancing and singing sprees and gaieties in brothels,
New acquaintances will soon be forgotten in an acrid and apathetic world,
Even old friends will be alienated if not stay closely cordial,
I don’t expect the Xin Feng wine to change my fortune’s wheel,
I’d rather spend a few thousand coins to drink off my dismals.

蟬 李商隱

蟬    李商隱(813-858)
本以高難飽，徒勞恨費聲。
五更疏欲斷，一樹碧無情。
薄宦梗猶泛，故園蕪已平。
煩君最相警，我亦舉家清。

Cicadas        Li Shangyin (813-858)

Staying clean and aloft and be left to starve but still refuses by any boodle defiled,

High up on trees but away its chirrs are muddled,
Every night on the fifth watch its chirr trails off,
But the insentient tree on which it settles remains in fine fettle,
As drifting tree branches I take up lowly requited devoirs on the rove,
My old garden has become destitute and uncultivable urging my recoil,
Thanks to your unrelenting remonstrating trills,
My whole family are free from any boodle defiled.

 

霜月 李商隱

霜月     李商隱(813-858)

初聞征雁已無蟬，百尺樓臺水接天。  

青女素娥俱耐冷，月中霜裡鬥嬋娟。  

Frosty Moon          Li Shangyin (813-858)

When I first heard the wayfaring wild geese had already flown away, trees were divested of cicadas,

Water merges with the heavens on the tall tall tower,
Goddess of the frost (the green girl) and Chang’er on the moon can both stand the chills thither,
So there they quietly vying their beauty and glamour with each other.

嫦娥 李商隱

嫦娥      李商隱(813-858)

雲母屏風燭影深，長河漸落曉星沉。

嫦娥應悔偷靈藥，碧海青天夜夜心。

The Fairy in the Moon Chang’e      Li Shangyin (813-858)

On the mica screen the candlelight glimmers,

The Milky Way fades away as the morning stars turn dimmer,
Chang’e must be deeply chagrined at having stolen the elixir,
Deplorably she has to endure the solitude in the vast azure voidness night after night forever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

錦瑟 李商隱

錦瑟      李商隱(813-858)

錦瑟無端五十弦，一弦一柱思華年。
莊生曉夢迷蝴蝶，望帝春心托杜鵑。
滄海月明珠有淚，藍田日暖玉生煙。
此情可待成追憶，只是當時已惘然。

The Decorated Zithern          Li Shangyin (813-858)

For the zithern to have fifty strings is plainly out of the way,
Every string and strut reminds me of my lost golden days,
Master Zhuang dreamt into a butterfly he reincarnated,
King Wang of Shu’s yearnings through the cuckoo he conveyed;
Tear-crystalline pearls breed in the deep sea waters under the bright moon rays,
Jade in the Azure Field by mists under the warm sun is unveiled,
All these scenarios ought to have become fond reminiscence of the old days,
Only that, plunged in reverie on the spot I was carried away.