A Palace Lament

While watching some old 黃梅調 movies, there was the finale song in form of a poem from 雙鳳奇緣 at 1:40:10… From the italics part of the poem, I was inspired to write my own.

良宵春月照宮紗
臘炬成林爛如霞
有道天上神仙府
人間還數帝王家                      還數 as in 數還數, 路還路

此番公主和駙馬
假變真求真似假
一塲喜事兩番做
今夕春滿帝王家

1 昨夜星寒照宮紗 Last night cold were the stars shining at the palace windows,
2 今宵月缺怨雲霞 Tonight, the moon is imperfect but the colored clouds get blamed.
3 醉後千杯暖誰人Wouldst a thousand cups be warming anyone?
4 蓬蓽更勝帝王家 Far better are walls of a hovel than those of palace grounds.

1 literally, “palace silk”. 紗 is gauze-like, rough and yet strong, durable and translucent silk to be used like frosted glass. Only the imperial family is rich enough to use them. Ordinary people used paper.

2 月缺 translates to “new moon” and hence imperfect. The intent of this line is that even when full, it would be obscured by the clouds.

3 Ancient Chinese prefer their alcohol warmed.

4 Short for 蓬門蓽戶 – over grown gate and wicker windows, a poor person’s dwelling. The literal inference is that at least there is warmth in a shared bed. Figuratively, palace relationships are never genuine and fidelity is non-existent.

Sunday, April 2, 2023