How to Read Chinese Poetry A Guided Anthology

250 t He F i v e Dy na s t i e s anD t He s ong Dy na s t y

The colloquial flavor of the poem makes itself felt in the sheer number of inter-

rogatives (six in a ten-line poem). The male speaker enumerates in accusatory

tones aspects of the woman’s appearance, some of which have erotic overtones (the

scratches on the face and the mussed hair). The woman’s position in a doorway

could be regarded as a suggestive, beckoning posture. The “love knot,” or “heart”

knot, in her sash would usually have been tied by her lover. The hairpin may have

been the speaker’s own love token.

The man’s interrogating voice draws attention to his power to exact an account

while, ironically, piling up proofs of his own neglect. The female speaker turns

these proofs into a catalog of evidence for her own devotion in the second poem of

the pair:

C 1 2. 3

To the Tune “Southern Tune,” No. 2

Since you went away

2 I’ve no heart to love another.

New scratches on my face appeared in my dreams.

4 I tied the love knot in my own silk sash.

It was the child who stepped on my hem.5

6 The beaded curtain mussed my cicada locks.

The hairpin broke along an old crack.

8 These streaks in my makeup are from crying for you.

I’m like the cypresses on South Mountain—

10 I’ve no heart to love another.

[QTWDC 7.893]

南歌子 其二 (nán gē zĭ qí èr)

from since you leave after 自從君去後 (zì cóng jūn qù hòu)
without heart love other person 無心戀別人 △ (wú xīn liàn bié rén)
dream in face on finger scar new 夢中面上指痕新 △ (mèng zhōng miàn shàng zhĭ hén xīn)
silk sash together heart self tie 羅帶同心自綰 (luó dài tóng xīn zì wăn)
by reckless child step broke skirt 被蠻兒踏破裙 △ (bèi mán ér tà pò qún)

cicada locks bead curtain mess 蟬鬢朱簾亂 (chán bìn zhū lián luàn)
gold hairpin old division broke 金釵舊股分 △ (jīn chāi jiù gŭ fēn)
red makeup hang tear cry darling you 紅妝垂淚哭郎君^ △ (hóng zhuāng chuí lèi kū láng jūn)
I (fem.) am south mount pine cypress 妾是南山松柏 (qiè shì nán shān sōng bó)
without heart love other person 無心戀別人^ △^ (wú xīn liàn bié rén)

The second poem carries on the colloquial flavor of the first and reproduces its

rhyme scheme. Note that there is a slight variation in line length between the two

poems (in lines 5 and 10). This is more common in early, popular ci examples,