For Love Of Lychees

While a quick doodle before my daily jog but during the run, the theme was changed drastically to a better one...

1晚霞漸臨殘影斜 Red colored evening clouds slowly approacheth, long shadows a slant,
2 紫微冷照染飛騎 And drenched is the fast dispatch in the cold light of the Emperor Star.
3 西北直向八百里 Lying straight to the northwest is the distance of eight hundred miles,
4 長安日破恐莫赦 And if dawn breaks over the city of Eternal Peace, no pardon be granted.

5 綺回初逢華清池 Returning to memories of the first meeting at the Pool of Flower Purity,
6 曾似誓約七夕夜 As if once upon a time an oath on a certain Night of Seventh pledged.
7 上陽朝無妃子笑 No more morning lychees in the Palace of the Supreme Sun,
8 夢境還舊散不舍 And yet scenes of old dreams are reluctant to dissipate.

1 With the subsequent lines in the poem, this actually paints the gradual decay of the Tang Empire.

2 The north star appears stationary while other stars revolve around it and therefore represents the throne. The line literally says, “the Polaris is shining coldly, tainting the fast dispatch in its light”.

3 Putting together the military dispatch and the 800 mile journey from the south east often associates the delivery of lychees for Yang Guifei’s breakfast.

4 The befuddled emperor won’t not be happy when Yang Guifei throws a fit because of her missing favorite fruit on the breakfast table.

5 The Pool of Flower Purity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huaqing_Pool

6. This alludes to a story that on one Seventh Night when they made an oath that they will never leave each other. However, a few years later, he was forced to have her to commit suicide as his retaining army refused to go on further to escape from the An Lu Shan rebellion as long as she was alive.

7 This is where the abdicated emperor lived. He did not live too long afterwards. 妃子笑, the “imperial concubine smiles” is also a name of a variety of lychee that Yang Guifei favored most. Thus, the line also refers to her death.

Friday, June 30, 2023