246. Song of the South | Li Yi
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
嫁得瞿塘贾，朝朝误妾期。
English translation
I married a merchant who trades through Qutang, and day after day he fails the date he promised me.
Gu means merchant. He repeatedly misses the expected return, leaving his wife to wait through one disappointed day after another.
Original Chinese text
早知潮有信，嫁与弄潮儿。
English translation
Had I known the tide kept faith so well, I would have married a man who lives by its waters.
The tide keeps faith by rising and falling on time. A tide rider is someone skilled in the water and its rhythms; the bitter joke contrasts the tide's regularity with the merchant's broken promises.
赏析 · Commentary
埋怨落在“信”字上 · The Complaint Turns on Keeping Faith
商人远行本有生计缘由，诗中的妻子真正不满的是归期一再落空。潮水没有人的感情，却能按时来去；丈夫会说归期，反而不能守约。“信”既是潮汐规律，也是人与人之间的信用，末句的反讽由此成立。
The merchant may have practical reasons for traveling, but the wife's grievance is repeated failure to return as promised. The tide has no human feeling, yet comes and goes on time; the husband can name a date, yet does not keep it. Faith means both tidal regularity and trust between people, which gives the final line its irony.
“嫁与弄潮儿”是一句气话 · I Would Have Married a Tide Rider Is Bitter Speech
末句不必理解成她真的可以重新选择婚姻，而是等待太久后的反语。她把丈夫与潮水比较，把失望说成一个不可能重来的选择。口吻近于民歌，直白、带刺，也因此让长期独守的处境在短短四句中显出来。
The final line need not be read as a literal plan to choose another husband. It is bitter counterfactual speech after waiting too long. She compares husband with tide and turns disappointment into a choice that cannot be remade. The folk-song directness is sharp enough to reveal years of solitary waiting in four lines.