370 t He y uan, m i ng, anD q i ng Dy na s t i e s
哭姊
(kū zĭ)
clear night still recall quiet talk time 清宵猶憶靜談時
(qīng xiāo yóu yì jìng tán shí)
alive fear group part each other gather rare 生恐群分相聚稀^
(shēng kŏng qún fēn xiāng jù xī)
inner chamber how know have death separate 閨閤那知有死別^
(guī gé nă zhī yŏu sĭ bié)
heart feeling only manage look for come return 心情只管盼来歸^
(xīn qíng zhĭ guăn pàn lái guī)
link verse elder sister younger sister together good friend 聯詩姊妹同良友^
(lián shī zĭ mèi tóng liáng yŏu)
follow company dawn dusk together embroider curtain 隨伴朝昏共繡幃^
(suí bàn zhāo hūn gòng xiù wéi)
facing mirror startled look at person alone stand 對鏡驚看人獨立^
(duì jìng jīng kàn rén dú lì)
flutter curtain sense of contrariness see swallows pair fly 撲簾偏見燕雙飛^
(pū lián piān jiàn yàn shuāng fēi)
[Tonal pattern Ia, see p. 172]
Gan Lirou had feared only that she and her sister would be separated during their
lives by marriage, when they would leave their natal home for their husbands’
families. This makes the untimely and eternal parting by death all the more poi-
gnant. After recalling their companionship as young girls in the inner quarters,
the poem ends with the speaker gazing at her image in front of the mirror alone,
without her sister. The image of paired swallows, conventionally signifying lovers,
is used as a foil for the speaker’s loss of her companion.
After the three-year mourning period for her mother, Gan Lirou was married
to Xu Yuelü, in a match her parents had made. Uncharacteristically for a young
woman, Gan Lirou composed her own version of “Hastening the Bride’s Toilet,” a
celebratory verse usually written by guests as the bride is fetched from her home.
Herself the bride about to be fetched, she used this wedding poem to record her
experience of this important rite of passage. As she puts on her bridal gown and
headdress, she laments that her mother is no longer alive to perform the custom
of tying the sash for her:30C 1 7. 9
Hastening the Bride’s ToiletPearl headdress and patterned robe suddenly put on my body,
In marrying, I take leave of my family and part from those I love.
The way of the daughter comes to an end, that of the wife begins,
But there is no mother to tie my sash with her own hands.
[YXLG 1.35a]