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For Poetry Monday, more self-indulgence.
Shangguan Wan’er (664?-710) was at various times a palace slave, personal secretary, concubine to two emperors, and right-hand woman and prime minister to Empress Wu Zetian. She was noted in her time for both her poetry and the elegant prose she used when drafting edicts. Back when I wrote RPF about her and her poems, I knew basically no Chinese and relied on others’ translations. Now I can do my own. FWIW, thirty-odd poems of hers survive, including these three.
1
The third month of the winter season, in the Jinglong Reign:
Ten-thousand chariots as sentry guards, departing from Ba River.
I see afar the lightnings frolic, dragons as their steeds—
I turn to stare at the frosty plains, the fields seemingly jade.
2
The phoenix banners are trailing out, shaking off the sky;
Black cavalry horses’ feathered hooves tread upon beams of light.
Hidden, hidden, Mount Li rises high above the clouds;
Far, far away, the imperial tent is open to the sun.
3
Emerald tent with gemstone sides—an open moonlit camp;
Golden wine-jar and jade wine-cup—a floating orchid petal.
Year after year, age after age, always his escort makes way;
For long and long, for ever and ever, music ascends harmonious.
驾幸新丰温泉宫献诗三首
一
三冬季月景龙年，
万乘观风出灞川。
遥看电跃龙为马，
回瞩霜原玉作田。
二
鸾旗掣曳拂空回，
羽骑骖驔蹑景来。
隐隐骊山云外耸，
迢迢御帐日边开。
三
翠幕珠帏敞月营，
金罍玉斝泛兰英。
岁岁年年常扈跸，
长长久久乐升平。
The emperor in question is Zhongzong, during his second reign (707-710), and the outing began on 16 January 709. The palace was in the foothills of Mt. Li, a few days from Chang’an by slow imperial procession, and the springs made it a popular imperial retreat in winter. To stand sentry on lookout is literally “watch the wind.” The Ba River (now called Bahe River) ran past the eastern wall of Chang’an (if not inside: it’s hard to tell on old maps).
When she wrote these, Shangguan Wan’er was a high-but-not-highest rank imperial concubine, and in alliance with Empress Wei was one of the powers running the government, in particular controlling the Secretariat. She’s writing courtier poetry, designed to celebrate the occasion and flatter her in-practice nearly powerless husband. There’s a lot of technical virtuosity on display, including multiple synonyms and increasing piles of reduplicative words.
Which makes them notably different in style and manner from, for example, random samples from 300 Tang Poems. This is partly because they’re courtier poems (a genre omitted from that anthology because Confucian moralism) but partly because they’re old-fashioned. The style we think of as “Tang Poetry” was still jelling almost a century into the dynasty, and Shangguan Wan’er grew up reading and writing poetry more like that of the Six Dynasties period: ornate, elaborated, with more figurative language than direct images. She was, at this point in her life, a leading literary figure—one about to be eclipsed by changing fashions and politics (she would die in a year and a half in the succession struggle following Zhongzong’s death).
(I suspect not much damage would be done by wrestling these literal translations into rhyme, thus giving them appropriate ornamentation.)
---L.
Index of Chinese translations
Shangguan Wan’er (664?-710) was at various times a palace slave, personal secretary, concubine to two emperors, and right-hand woman and prime minister to Empress Wu Zetian. She was noted in her time for both her poetry and the elegant prose she used when drafting edicts. Back when I wrote RPF about her and her poems, I knew basically no Chinese and relied on others’ translations. Now I can do my own. FWIW, thirty-odd poems of hers survive, including these three.
1
The third month of the winter season, in the Jinglong Reign:
Ten-thousand chariots as sentry guards, departing from Ba River.
I see afar the lightnings frolic, dragons as their steeds—
I turn to stare at the frosty plains, the fields seemingly jade.
2
The phoenix banners are trailing out, shaking off the sky;
Black cavalry horses’ feathered hooves tread upon beams of light.
Hidden, hidden, Mount Li rises high above the clouds;
Far, far away, the imperial tent is open to the sun.
3
Emerald tent with gemstone sides—an open moonlit camp;
Golden wine-jar and jade wine-cup—a floating orchid petal.
Year after year, age after age, always his escort makes way;
For long and long, for ever and ever, music ascends harmonious.
驾幸新丰温泉宫献诗三首
一
三冬季月景龙年，
万乘观风出灞川。
遥看电跃龙为马，
回瞩霜原玉作田。
二
鸾旗掣曳拂空回，
羽骑骖驔蹑景来。
隐隐骊山云外耸，
迢迢御帐日边开。
三
翠幕珠帏敞月营，
金罍玉斝泛兰英。
岁岁年年常扈跸，
长长久久乐升平。
The emperor in question is Zhongzong, during his second reign (707-710), and the outing began on 16 January 709. The palace was in the foothills of Mt. Li, a few days from Chang’an by slow imperial procession, and the springs made it a popular imperial retreat in winter. To stand sentry on lookout is literally “watch the wind.” The Ba River (now called Bahe River) ran past the eastern wall of Chang’an (if not inside: it’s hard to tell on old maps).
When she wrote these, Shangguan Wan’er was a high-but-not-highest rank imperial concubine, and in alliance with Empress Wei was one of the powers running the government, in particular controlling the Secretariat. She’s writing courtier poetry, designed to celebrate the occasion and flatter her in-practice nearly powerless husband. There’s a lot of technical virtuosity on display, including multiple synonyms and increasing piles of reduplicative words.
Which makes them notably different in style and manner from, for example, random samples from 300 Tang Poems. This is partly because they’re courtier poems (a genre omitted from that anthology because Confucian moralism) but partly because they’re old-fashioned. The style we think of as “Tang Poetry” was still jelling almost a century into the dynasty, and Shangguan Wan’er grew up reading and writing poetry more like that of the Six Dynasties period: ornate, elaborated, with more figurative language than direct images. She was, at this point in her life, a leading literary figure—one about to be eclipsed by changing fashions and politics (she would die in a year and a half in the succession struggle following Zhongzong’s death).
(I suspect not much damage would be done by wrestling these literal translations into rhyme, thus giving them appropriate ornamentation.)
---L.
Index of Chinese translations