ChineseStudy

286. Because There Is | Li Shangyin

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Text

English translation

Because behind the mica screen there is beauty beyond measure, in the phoenix city, winter gone, she dreads the spring night.

Because opens the poem, pointing to the woman's beauty; the mica screen is a screen decorated with sheets of mica. The phoenix city is the capital, Chang'an. Winter gone marks the turn from winter into spring; to dread the spring night is not to fear its cold but to fear how short it is—spring nights are brief, and daybreak means parting, so she has come to fear it.

For no reason she married a husband with a golden tortoise, and now she wastes the fragrant quilt, for he must attend the morning court.

For no reason means without cause, why ever, and carries reproach. A husband with a golden tortoise is a high official: Tang officials wore tortoise-shaped insignia pouches, and the golden tortoise was worn by the highest ranks, so later ages called a distinguished son-in-law a golden-tortoise husband. The fragrant quilt is the warm, scented bedding; to attend the morning court means he must leave before dawn. The ground of her complaint is precisely that splendor and neglect come together.

赏析 · Commentary

富贵里的空房 · An Empty Room Amid Riches

女子住在京城，屏风华美，夫婿显贵，看似令人艳羡；她却“怕春宵”“辜负香衾”。原因很简单：丈夫是高官，天不亮就得去上早朝。诗人把怨意放在“无端”二字上——嫁得富贵，反不如寻常夫妻朝夕相守。全诗只写这一层矛盾，不铺陈别的。

The woman lives in the capital with a fine screen and a distinguished husband, seemingly enviable; yet she dreads the spring night and wastes the fragrant quilt. The reason is simple: her husband is a high official who must leave for court before dawn. The poet puts the complaint in the words for no reason—to marry into wealth is worse than an ordinary couple's daily company. The poem writes only this one contradiction and lays out nothing else.

一个“怕”字的分量 · The Weight of One Word: Dread

春夜本是良宵，她偏偏怕。怕的不是春夜，而是春夜太短、天亮太快。一个“怕”字，把独守空房又贪恋相聚的心情写尽了。后两句把原因补上以后，前面的“无限娇”就不再只是容貌，也成了这份无人共度的娇。

A spring night should be a fine night, yet she dreads it. What she dreads is not the night but how short it is and how fast the dawn comes. One word, dread, exhausts the feeling of keeping an empty room while hungering for company. Once the closing couplet supplies the cause, the beauty beyond measure of the first line is no longer only her looks; it becomes a beauty no one shares.

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