"Lin Jiang Xian:
After the dream, high pavilions and towers are heavily locked; when the wine wears off, the curtains hang low. The sorrow of last spring returns once more: amid falling blossoms a person stands alone, while in the fine rain a pair of swallows fly together.
I remember when I first met Xiaoying, wearing a gauze dress patterned with double-heart characters. On the pipa strings she voiced her lovesickness; the bright moon of that time is still here, once shining on colorful clouds returning."
The vernacular translation of this ci poem is:
Waking from a dream, one sees only towering pavilions with tightly locked doors; the alcohol fades to reveal layer upon layer of lowered curtains. The resentment stirred up last winter comes to trouble me, just as falling petals scatter and a solitary figure stands alone, with swallows flying in pairs amidst the misty drizzle.
I still vividly remember first meeting Xiaoying, dressed in a light robe embroidered with double-heart characters. Plucking the pipa and dancing along the strings, she poured out her lovesickness; the moonlight then was as pure and bright as jade, and she drifted away like a beautiful colored cloud returning home.
Because the themes for this poetry gathering were "lamenting spring" and "lovesickness," Ye Tian ultimately thought of this Lin Jiang Xian by Yan Jidao, which is also one of the other's most widely known ci compositions.
Of course, in the original work it was "I remember when I first met Xiaopi…
Chapter 33