268. Palace Song | Bai Juyi
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
泪湿罗巾梦不成，夜深前殿按歌声。
English translation
Tears soak her silk kerchief and sleep will not come; deep in the night, singing keeps time in the front hall.
The silk kerchief is a handkerchief of fine gauze. That sleep will not come means grief and longing keep her awake. The singing keeps time—the performers follow a beat; the clearer the pleasure in the front hall, the harder her solitude is to bear.
Original Chinese text
红颜未老恩先断，斜倚熏笼坐到明。
English translation
Her beauty has not yet faded, but favor is already cut off; leaning against the incense warmer, she sits until dawn.
Beauty means a youthful, lovely face. That favor is already cut off is the crux: this is not love cooling as looks fade, but favor ending while she is still young. The incense warmer is a frame set over a brazier for scenting clothes and bedding, faintly warm at night; the three words until dawn sum up a whole night of waiting.
赏析 · Commentary
一夜之间的两种声音 · Two Sounds in a Single Night
一个画面是前殿按拍而唱的歌声，一个画面是寝宫里的泪水与沉默。两者发生在同一个夜里，只隔一道宫墙。诗没有写谁来、谁不来，只让歌声不断提醒她：热闹就在近处，却与她无关。
One picture is the measured singing in the front hall; the other is tears and silence in the inner chamber. Both happen in the same night, separated only by a palace wall. The poem does not say who comes or does not come; it lets the music keep reminding her that the revelry is close and yet not hers.
“未老”二字的分量 · The Weight of Not Yet Old
宫怨诗常写色衰爱弛，这首诗却偏说她容颜未老，恩宠已经先断。于是问题不再是年华，而是君王的喜怒无常。她坐在微温的熏笼旁等到天亮，等的未必是恩宠回来，而是一个连她自己也解释不了的结局。
Palace laments often tell of beauty fading and love cooling, but this poem insists that her looks are still young while favor has already ended. The problem is no longer age but the emperor's caprice. She sits by the faintly warm incense warmer until morning, waiting perhaps not for favor to return but for an outcome she cannot explain even to herself.