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Moar Tang Dynasty ghost poems! You can’t stop me from translating ghost poems bwahaha! Or more to the point, I can’t stop myself from translating poems attributed to ancient Chinese ghosts. I’m obsessed, I am. I regret nothing, though. This installment starts at the beginning of Complete Tang Poems chapter 865 (headnotes) and marches forward, skipping ones already posted. Highlights this time include a ghost who can’t deliver a final message to his beloved older brother and must use an intermediary, the boastful papa of a dead prodigy, and a former emperor crankily telling a current emperor to get off his lawn tomb.
Of note: the poems in this chapter are organized chronologically, with almost all of them at least approximately dateable based on the headnote. (Note that the named poets in CTP’s main section are also ordered chronologically by poet.) In case you’re wondering, so far none of the poems I’ve translated from ch866 have unambiguous dates, except insofar as a couple involve historically attested people. [ETA: Some do have specific dates, actually, but are more fantastic than these stories.] Interestingly, and not too surprisingly, almost all the poems by female ghosts are in that second chapter.
Anyway, onward to the datable ghosts. Er, that didn’t come out right—I mean, if you want to date a ghost, that’s fine, no judging, but I meant ghost stories with historical dates.
Replying to Taizong from Upon His Burial Mound, Murong Chui
I formerly defeated former rulers—
The rulers of today defeat me today.
Glory is different in each generation:
What are you doing, bitterly hounding the old?
( The Dark Road’s deep, obscure, and people cannot know it— / I will not use the bitter words that give you people grief. )
And that’s enough for now—more to come, of course, with the next installment finishing out this chapter and starting the next, including some with an entertainment quality that almost matches that poem thrown at a losing general.
---L.
Index of Chinese translations
Of note: the poems in this chapter are organized chronologically, with almost all of them at least approximately dateable based on the headnote. (Note that the named poets in CTP’s main section are also ordered chronologically by poet.) In case you’re wondering, so far none of the poems I’ve translated from ch866 have unambiguous dates, except insofar as a couple involve historically attested people. [ETA: Some do have specific dates, actually, but are more fantastic than these stories.] Interestingly, and not too surprisingly, almost all the poems by female ghosts are in that second chapter.
Anyway, onward to the datable ghosts. Er, that didn’t come out right—I mean, if you want to date a ghost, that’s fine, no judging, but I meant ghost stories with historical dates.
Replying to Taizong from Upon His Burial Mound, Murong Chui
During (Tang Emperor) Taizong’s invasion of Liaoning, he arrived at Baoding. Beside the road, standing on a high burial mound, was a ghost in yellow robes. The spirit’s bright color was unique and different, so he dispatched a messenger to inquire about it. It replied with this poem, and when it finished speaking it disappeared. Thus it was the tomb of Murong Chui.
I formerly defeated former rulers—
The rulers of today defeat me today.
Glory is different in each generation:
What are you doing, bitterly hounding the old?
( The Dark Road’s deep, obscure, and people cannot know it— / I will not use the bitter words that give you people grief. )
And that’s enough for now—more to come, of course, with the next installment finishing out this chapter and starting the next, including some with an entertainment quality that almost matches that poem thrown at a losing general.
---L.
Index of Chinese translations