Amanuensis challenge
Jul. 20th, 2006 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petroniaChallenge here. Started this but petered off after a while as the Heavenly Dragon Kings have repeatedly soaked me in thunderstorms as punishment for my talentless bastardization of Li Qingzhao the topic is depressing. Posting after all as ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
canis_m might like to see it. ^^;
The appropriate thing to say in Chinese when about to give a recital of some kind is 献丑了 which translates to "I am about to exhibit my suckitude in public".
***
I have put aside
the pearls you gifted me.
Henceforth I will be adorned
in dew
and the bitter taste of tears.
***
A call at dawn: the last courier
passes, low on the horizon, winging
her way to the capital.
Her jade wings carried no word from you.
For my sorrow I tolerate no messenger--
only the wild geese,
such is our long acquaintance.
***
My hatred will not drown itself in wine.
The seven seas are not sufficient to quench its fire;
their waters cannot match it for bitterness.
***
The chrysanthemums are flayed of beauty
and clutter the ground.
The damage is done:
who would gather them now?
I wait alone by the window,
and the night is long in coming.
A fine rain patters on the plantains,
diminishing by evening--
drop by drop,
leaf to leaf.
The gauze of my veil is drenched.
How is it that one word - sorrow - encompasses all this.
***
Would I were a handmaiden
of the Lords of the Four Skies!
I would shed this mourning robe of scales
and coil myself, mortal,
in your bed of earth.
I extend my claws but cannot reach you.
You are gone from me, though I have searched
to the furthest expanses of the Western sky.
***
...You know, I just realised that for this to make any sense the "translation" should be in French. orz
canis_m might like to see it. ^^;The appropriate thing to say in Chinese when about to give a recital of some kind is 献丑了 which translates to "I am about to exhibit my suckitude in public".
***
I have put aside
the pearls you gifted me.
Henceforth I will be adorned
in dew
and the bitter taste of tears.
***
A call at dawn: the last courier
passes, low on the horizon, winging
her way to the capital.
Her jade wings carried no word from you.
For my sorrow I tolerate no messenger--
only the wild geese,
such is our long acquaintance.
***
My hatred will not drown itself in wine.
The seven seas are not sufficient to quench its fire;
their waters cannot match it for bitterness.
***
The chrysanthemums are flayed of beauty
and clutter the ground.
The damage is done:
who would gather them now?
I wait alone by the window,
and the night is long in coming.
A fine rain patters on the plantains,
diminishing by evening--
drop by drop,
leaf to leaf.
The gauze of my veil is drenched.
How is it that one word - sorrow - encompasses all this.
***
Would I were a handmaiden
of the Lords of the Four Skies!
I would shed this mourning robe of scales
and coil myself, mortal,
in your bed of earth.
I extend my claws but cannot reach you.
You are gone from me, though I have searched
to the furthest expanses of the Western sky.
***
...You know, I just realised that for this to make any sense the "translation" should be in French. orz
