Broken Promises

The first line came to me while I was trying to sleep…

1 後庭銀月照空清 In the backyard I see silvery moon shines alone in the empty sky,
2 獨霸九霄莫容情 Monopolizing the Nine Heavens and showing no mercy to others.
3 一斛珍珠兩行淚 One bushel of pearls and two rows of tears,
4 冷笑梅林花不盛 Laughing coldly at the Garden of withering peach blossoms.

5 靡恃七夕長生誓 Take not granted at the vow made at the Palace of Eternal Life,
6 何守五更馬嵬明 Nor be protected when dawn breaks at the Mawei Slope.
7 凡塵恩怨夢長短 Whether love and grudges of the mortal realm be long or short,
8 烟雨人生豈得停 How can life’s ephemerality be ever stopped?

1 空 means sky, not empty and清 means nothing remains. There is nothing in the sky to vie with the brilliance of the moon.

2 Chinese believe that there are nine levels of heaven.

3 This is the pivot line and reveals the encoded meaning of the previous lines. The story is that the previous favorite of Emperor Tang Hsuan Tsung, the Plum Concubine had been replaced by Yang Guifei, the new favorite. One day, the emperor thought of the former favorite and felt remorse of neglecting her. He sent a bushel of pearls secretly as compensation. However, the concubine would have nothing of it since when love had changed, nothing can be a replacement and wrote a poem to that effect,

柳葉雙眉久不描, Willow shaped brows no longer painted,
殘妝和淚污紅綃. My ruined makeup from tears stained my red silk robes.
長門盡日無梳洗, No need to pretty myself in a life of the Eternal Gate,
何必珍珠慰寂寥 So, why the need to have pearls to console my loneliness.

In the end, the emperor had her poem set to music.

Ballad of the Eternal Gate -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Jiao

4 The Plum Concubine was very fond of plum blossoms and hence her title. In her heyday, in order to please her, the emperor would have every genus of plums be scoured in the empire to be planted in her garden.

5 Another pivot line alluding to the vow made by the emperor and Yang Guifei on Seventh Night at the Palace of Eternal life, pledging that their love will be eternal.

6 When the Changan was sacked during the An Lu Shan rebellion, the imperial entourage escaped but a mutiny broke up at the Mawei slope and in the end, the emperor had no choice but to save his skin by allowing her execution through strangulation.

8 Though life is fleeting, we all won’t want to have this party to end.

Friday, October 13, 2023