大家好. I've translated more Judith Teixeira poems, but I'll share those—some of them, at least—soon enough. Right now I want to talk a bit about 李清照 Li Qingzhao, the "Householder of Yi'an" and one of China's foremost poets. You can read more about her on Wikipedia (of course), though I get the feeling that the English-language article doesn't do her justice. I have a collection of her poems published by 中信出版集团 Citic Press that's gorgeous. I bet I'll find more biographical information in there.
Li Qingzhao was born into a literary family (her father was a student of 蘇軾 Su Shi, a famous poet and the fellow whose 號, or artistic name, has been lent to the maybe even more famous dish 東坡肉 Dongpo pork), and married a fellow aficionado of the arts. So, like pretty much every well-known Chinese poet until the 20th century, she's a product of the educated class—a miniscule fraction of the population. That said, she doesn't appear to have had ties to the imperial court, so the poem below was not likely written based on personal experience. I'll come back to this later.
This poem is dense with images unfamiliar to me. Fortunately, I found a site that has some useful notes (in Chinese) on those images, and Baidu has an explanation
(also in Chinese) of the difference between 春聯 spring couplets and 春貼子
spring greetings. Basically, the former are pasted up for the lunar new
year, whereas the latter were hung within palace precincts for the
official start of spring. They may still be in use, but I don't know for
sure. According to the notes I linked to above, the 金環 "golden band" was a piece of jewelry worn by imperial concubines who were giving birth (from being in labor to "lying in", broadly speaking), or, somewhat more confusingly, menstruating, which seems to run up against the springtime/birth associations in the poem. 鉤弋 Gouyi and 昭陽 Zhaoyang are imperial residences associated with two different women: 趙倢伃 Zhao Jieyu, a consort of 漢武帝 Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty, and 趙飛燕 Zhao Feiyan, a favorite of 漢成帝 Emperor Cheng of the Han dynasty and later known as 孝成皇后 Empress Xiaocheng. Both residences are supposed to have been quite luxurious. Given the theme of springtime and birth, I've translated these lines as reflecting pregnancies in both palaces.
The 百子帳 "hundred-sons veil" and 萬年觴 "10,000-year goblet" are, respectively, a wedding decoration ("canopy" might be better than "veil") embroidered with frolicking young sons, symbolizing the old maxim 多子多福 "more sons, more happiness"; and a ceremonial goblet used, I think, by the emperor to hold what the source above calls 壽酒 "longevity wine". Interestingly enough, if you look up 壽酒, you get a lot of results for 高粱 gaoliang, a variety of the gnarly sorghum liquor known as 白酒 baijiu.
So here Li Qingzhao has given us a pair of spring greeting couplets. The references within them seem specific to the imperial household context, and the sentiment in keeping with the occasion, so the overall effect is exactly as the title describes. The couplets themselves are pleasantly refined, but what makes this poem interesting is the point of view from which it's written, or, maybe better yet, seen. One on hand, Li can be viewed as assuming the role of the writer of the couplets, a concubine in an imperial residence. On the other hand, it's intriguing to think of Li as viewing the couplets outside the concubine's door and copying them down, possibly for her own enjoyment or for posterity. In this scenario, Li takes the concubine's work as her own, insofar as there's no attribution other than the poem's title itself. This leads to questions about Li's motivation, the concubine who wrote the couplets, and the relationship between the two women. Did they meet and talk? Did Li ask permission to share the couplets, and to do so under her own name and not the author's?
This is all speculation, of course, but hey, it's fun to speculate. While Li Qingzhao did, for at least part of her life, move among society's upper echelons, I don't think she had anything to do with the Emperor and the miniature world that surrounded him, so it's unlikely that this poem is anything but a work of imagination, and not an exercise in plagiarism. Nevertheless, the fact that both readings came to mind so naturally is a testament to Li's skill. I look forward to reading, and translating, more of her work. I hope you enjoy it too, 看官.
微臣
史大偉
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貴妃閣春貼子
李清照
金環半後禮
鉤弋比昭陽
春生百子帳
喜入萬年觴
Spring Greetings Hung Outside the Imperial Consort’s Boudoir
Li Qingzhao
The imperial consorts wear the golden band
In Gouyi and Zhaoyang alike
Spring brings a hundred-sons veil
Gladness fills the 10,000-year goblet
妤
