233. He Manzi | Zhang Hu
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
故国三千里，深宫二十年。
English translation
Three thousand miles from her native land, she has spent twenty years within the deep palace.
The numbers need not be exact measurements; they extend distance and duration together. The palace woman is both far from home and long confined.
Original Chinese text
一声何满子，双泪落君前。
English translation
At the first phrase of He Manzi, two streams of tears fall before the ruler.
He Manzi is the name of a song tune. Before the lord is commonly understood as before the emperor; singing releases the homesickness and grief held through those years.
赏析 · Commentary
三千里与二十年 · Three Thousand Miles and Twenty Years
第一句量距离，第二句量时间，两个尺度把人物围住。她不能回到三千里外的故乡，也无法取回已经过去的二十年。诗没有描写宫殿陈设，“深宫”二字已经说明空间的封闭。到第三句才出现歌声，沉默得越久，落泪便越突然。
The first line measures distance, the second time, and the two dimensions close around the figure. She cannot return to a homeland three thousand miles away or recover twenty years already spent. No palace furnishings are described; deep palace is enough to establish enclosure. Song appears only in the third line, and the longer the preceding silence, the more sudden the tears.
歌声不是表演的全部 · More Than a Performance
宫中唱曲本可视作娱人的表演，这首诗却让表演在第一声就破裂。歌词或曲调触动了唱者自身的记忆，她不能继续只是一个供人观看和聆听的角色。末句中的泪让台前的君王看见，却没有说明他是否理解。
A palace song could be treated as entertainment, but here the performance breaks open at its first phrase. The tune touches the singer's own memory, and she can no longer remain only a figure to be watched and heard. Her tears become visible to the ruler, though the poem does not say whether he understands them.