STUDY IN CHINA GLOBAL (SCG)品令.急雨惊秋晓
原作：李清照（存疑）
英译：闵晓红
急雨惊秋晓，
今岁较、秋风早。
一觞一咏，
更须莫负、晚风残照。
可惜莲花已谢，
莲房尚小。
汀苹岸草，
怎称得、人情好。
有些言语，
也待醉折、荷花问道。
道与荷花，
人比去年总老。
A Chasing Rain Awakes Me at Daybreak
– to the tune of Pinling
written by Li Qingzhao ( 12th century)
trans. by Julia Min
A chasing rain awakes me at daybreak.
It’s the west wind, – already autumn days!
Life’s still cosy digesting poems with wine,
and the sun is rosy though setting’s the fate.
The lotus are done with her blooming race,
leaving seed-pods still small, – such a shame!
Just grassy strands and duckweeds on lake,
how could one remain as happy and gay?
Something’s beyond elegance and eloquence
until picking lotus again with a tipsy brain.
I’d ask the flower in her charming grace:
“why we’re ageing but you are back the same?”
Appreciation:
The two Pingling ci poems ( this one and “The Fallen Crimson Rouged the Ground of Mud”) have not been confirmed as Li Qingzhao’s creation due to the difference in different publications. Judging from the language used, the style and structure, they could well be her works on boudoir sentiments.
Sentiments at the end of autumn are widely captured in literature, used mainly to associate with ageing, declining or simply things coming close to the end.
