Wang Hai Chao (Watching the waves)
By Mr. Qin Guan (1049-1100), Song Dynasty Poet
Translated by Laijon Liu
I am a piece of flying cotton,
My love is water that flows;
Once we touch, then I’ll follow him and float.
A dim moon over the garden room,
Withered light shinned thru curtain,
We together rushed into our good time.
Once the departing talk started,
Then we embraced with sobbing cry,
And tear streamed of crimson red.
But the painted barge does not remain,
So behind the green curtain,
We leaned on each other and said goodbye.
But after our separation,
How shall we ease our lovesickness?
My handkerchief, our pinewood game,
My cream, my powder, and my green chopsticks of our love days;
But please do not let other know.
For whom I’ve got this sickness?
I can only tell that autumn ends.
So please just go without doubt.
And I wish in this life we are destined
To be together, and fly shoulder to shoulder.
Note:
In Song dynasty, marriage was arranged by parents. But that bondage did not stop the young couple to fall in love, and make their own decision for their own life in private place. And this is the poem that the poet Mr. Qin Guan spoke in a voice of young maid who met her love, and revolutionarily broke the bondage of feudalism, but breaking the law or rules or tradition were not her only pursuit, only love was. I cannot believe that they lived so freely in that kind of society, and the poet was so fierce that first he picked a female as his voice and shouted thru beginning swear, the knowing night, the pain of separation, the dealing of lovesickness, the method of their covering up, and her last wish. She is my hero, so the poet.
