289. Chang'e | Li Shangyin
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
云母屏风烛影深，长河渐落晓星沉。
English translation
On the mica screen the candle shadows deepen; the Milky Way sinks low and the morning star goes down.
The mica screen is inlaid with mica, describing the room and the loneliness of whoever is in it. The candle shadows deepen tells how late it is and how the candle nears its end. The long river is the Milky Way, which gradually sets; the morning star is the last bright star before dawn, and its sinking marks it vanishing. All three show time passing: the night is nearly over and no one has slept.
Original Chinese text
嫦娥应悔偷灵药，碧海青天夜夜心。
English translation
Chang'e must regret stealing the elixir; through the blue sea and blue sky, night after night, her heart.
Chang'e, sometimes written Chang E, stole the elixir of immortality meant for her husband Hou Yi and flew up to the moon, to be alone ever after. Must regret is the poet guessing on her behalf: immortality bought her eternal solitude. The blue sea and blue sky are the vast world the moon faces; night after night her heart is that feeling, repeated with no end. The poem writes of Chang'e and through her of the price of seeking long life or godhood in this world.
赏析 · Commentary
从室内写到天上 · From the Room to the Heavens
前两句只写室内外的夜：屏风、烛影、银河、晓星，全是时间在走、人没有睡。后两句忽然转到月宫里的嫦娥。诗人没有写主人公是谁，正是让这失眠的人与嫦娥互为影子——一个在人间独守长夜，一个在天上夜夜孤心。
The opening couplet gives only the night indoors and out: screen, candle shadows, Milky Way, morning star—all of them time passing while no one sleeps. Closing, the poem turns suddenly to Chang'e in the moon palace. The poet never names who is sleepless, precisely so that this person and Chang'e may be each other's shadow—one keeping a long night alone on earth, one alone in heart night after night in the sky.
“悔”字里藏着什么 · What Hides in the Word Regret
嫦娥得了长生，却失去了相伴的人，所以“应悔”。这个“悔”是诗人替她说的，其实也在问：用永远的孤独换来的不死，值不值得？晚唐人多信神仙、求方药，李商隐借嫦娥的处境轻轻一讽。结句“夜夜心”三字，把孤单写成没有尽头的循环。
Chang'e gained long life and lost everyone beside her, and so must regret. The regret is spoken by the poet for her, and it also asks: is an immortality bought with eternal solitude worth having? Many in late Tang believed in immortals and sought elixirs, and Li Shangyin gently mocks them through Chang'e's plight. The closing words, night after night her heart, turn loneliness into a cycle without end.