r e C e n t-s t y l e Sh i P oe t ry : quat ra i n s 215still toward gold city bright lord look 還向金城明主看
(huán xiàng jīn chéng míng zhŭ kān)
grasp broom dawn bright gold palace open 奉帚平明金殿開
(fèng zhŏu píng míng jīn diàn kāi)
then hold round fan temporary pace roam 且將團扇暫裴回
(qiĕ jiāng tuán shàn zhàn péi huí)
jade face not match cold crow color 玉顏不及寒鴉色
(yù yán bù jí hán yā sè)
still carry Zhao -yang sun reflection come 猶帶昭陽日影來
(yóu dài zhāo yáng rì yĭng lái)
truly become unfortunate life long contemplate think 真成薄命久尋思
(zhēn chéng bó mìng jiŭ xún sī)
dream see lord king wake after doubt 夢見君王覺後疑
(mèng jiàn jūn wáng jué hòu yí)
fire shine west palace know night drink 火照西宮知夜飲
(huŏ zhào xī gōng zhī yè yĭn)
very clear covered walkway bestow favor time 分明複道奉恩時
(fēn míng fù dào fèng ēn shí)
long trust palace within autumn moon bright 長信宮中秋月明
(cháng xìn gōng zhōng qiū yuè míng)
Zhao -yang palace below beat clothes sound 昭陽殿下擣衣聲
(zhāo yáng diàn xià dăo yī shēng)
white dew hall within delicate grass trace 白露堂中細草跡
(bái lù táng zhōng xì căo jī)
red silk canopy within not surpassed emotion 紅羅帳裏不勝情
(hóng luó zhàng lĭ bú shèng qíng)
[Tonal pattern IIa (poems 1–3), Ia (poem 4),
combination of IIa and Ia (imperfect) (poem 5), see p. 171]
The series presents Lady Ban through the course of two nights and a day. The
cumulative effect is to show the obsessive quality of her despair and the hellish
nature of her existence. Her emotion is in strong contrast to her opulent surround-
ings, which, as a result, appear as a prison. Solitude and too much time on her
hands allow her imagination to run wild; in the fourth poem, she does not actually
know that the emperor is in the Zhaoyang Palace romancing Zhao Feiyan. The en-
tire series takes place in her fevered mind. Note that the second couplet of the fifth
poem uses static parallelism. There is no resolution, no conclusion, for Lady Ban.
Moreover, only in this final poem is the tonal prosodic pattern slightly off (it does
not follow the nian rule [chap. 8]), which gives a disquieting effect.
Poetry of parting is judged by its power to present personal affection in novel
ways. A fine example is Li Bai’s “Sending Off Meng Haoran to Guangling at Yellow
Crane Tower”: