临江仙 · 梅 英文赏析

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庭院深深深几许，
云窗雾阁春迟，
为谁憔悴损芳姿。
夜来清梦好，
应是发南枝。

玉瘦檀轻无限恨，
南楼羌管休吹。
浓香吹尽有谁知，
暖风迟日也，
别到杏花肥更多信息请访问：http://www.24en.com/

Listening to my favorite classic Chinese music, reading this romantic poem, I am emotionally touched, restless in the soul.  I have to pour out my empathy with Li Qingzhao in her perfect depiction of the melancholy feeling.

This poem is, by the first look, talking about plum blossoms getting nobody to appreciate their beauty.  We know that the plum blossoms bloom in winter, while most other flowers wither.  Its biological trait is to endure the harsh coldness of winter and unfold its charming colors and aroma against the freezing coldness.  Throughout Chinese literary history, thousands of poets have complimented the plum blossoms as a unique plant that shows determination and perseverance and courage.  They impersonate the natural phenomenon of plum blossoms as an inspiring spirit to fight through thistles and thorns for the final triumph of success—to bloom a spectacular view of colors.

Li Qingzhao, however, does not repeat her predecessors" appreciation of the flower, but rather paint a sad picture. This sad picture looks like to have pity on the plum blossoms but literally sing a symphony of her self-pity.

Her husband died in her 40s, and ever since she had been living a lonely life.  She was unhappy and piled up her go through many of her beautiful poems. She was missing her husband a lot.  She was having sympathy on herself being such a talented and pretty woman and yet his man had long gone. 

The first stanza talks about her living space and the fact that the plum blossoms start to wither. She lives deep inside a closed apartment complex through a long lane. When spring comes, she does not know as the spring sunlight and all its greens and aroma of flowers do not approach her easily.  So the spring comes late to her bedroom.  Only did she see the beautiful, warm spring when she pushes open the window.  But she sees the plum blossoms withering and she is sad for the flowers.  "For whom are you so sad as to wither? Where did all your colors and beauty go?" She asks herself.  At such a warm, peaceful night, it is by nature that the plum blossoms grow young twigs just as all other plants!

The next stanza takes us first of all to a closer picture of the withering plum blossoms.  The snapshot is on the trunk and the flower petals.  They are both becoming skinny and light. And therefore there is a lot of pity.  Li feels upset for the elapsing beauty of the plum blossoms.  Then all of a sudden she hears a very sad flute.  She is bitching about this music.  An ineffable feeling of sadness springs up from within, "who on earth is playing the flute? Stop doing it!  I am already so sad!"  The aroma from the plum blossoms was so strong and pleasant in winter.  But when spring comes, it is fading away.  The wind has blown it away. Who knows that there used to be so nice all around here? She would watch the blooming flowers, enjoy the fragrant smell.  But now all is gone. Nobody knows the past beauty.  The warm wind, please, do not come so early.  I don"t want to see that the almond flowers thrive, while the plum blossoms wither out.

Li implies in her poem:

"And I, Li Qingzhao, such a good lady has to live the rest of her life all alone. Almighty Lord, why did you have to take his life?  We were once so happy together.  I love him and he adores me deeply.  Ain"t I like the plum blossoms fading away?  Why should I have such a bad fate?"

The poet, Ms. Li Qingzhao fled the north to the south, after the Nansong government was defeated by the northern rebels. The war had ripped across China, and everywhere was in dire depression. She was not accustomed to life in the south. There were two major unhappy moods in Li"s heart.One was her protest against the chicken government who was easily defeated by rebels.  She ended up as a countryless person, along with other refugees swarming to the south; the second was the demise of her husband years ago.  She missed him very much. She had lived happily with her husband, and each happy hour was still clear and touching in her mind. But when she was writing this poem, everything had gone. She had to savor the melancholy all by herself,nobody to talk to, nobody to rejoice with her, nobody to console her sadness.

Having to live in such an exotic place added to Li"s nostalgia. And there is still another reason why she was emotionally quite down.  Before the death of her husband and the collapse of her country, she was living an upper class life.  In ancient China only the middle and upper class people could have access to good education.  Li must have been born of such a good family and had successfully grown into a well-known scholar and poet at her time, and even nowadays. She won lots of respect and admirations from people around.  Financially well-being, she had been living quite a comfortable life with her husband before she had to flee south. Economic difficulty must also have added to her bad mood.

Just like Yue Fei (A famous military general at Nansong Dynasty) put it in his poem "Xiao Chong Shan" (With few friends who are able to appreciate my music, I don"t seem to be happy even though I play my musical instrument with my full might until the strings get broken! Nobody would listen to me and understand my heart. 知音少，弦断有谁听？）,

Li also says in her poem that she has no friends to listen to her, though there was major difference between these two complaints - the former being political loneliness, and the latter being emotional loneliness.

Li saw no hope about her future, about the future of her country.  The coward central government did not seem to be able to win back the lost land and power; her husband had passed away; she had to live in such a miserable, foreign, lonely place.

Let us also look into her heart as a woman in her 40s.  She must be a pretty and talented woman. She was gifted with literature.  She was also romantic.  At her time, most Chinese people, especially intellectuals, follow the confucianism teaching, to remain a widow after their husbands die.  They would be considered unfaithful to their marriage even after the death of their husbands.  But she was psychologically and physiologically feminine and normal.  She needed happy family and true love from a man.  It was natural for her to miss a man, and in her case, nobody but her husband Zhao Mingcheng.  Most probably she did not miss any other man.With her brilliance, she could well trust that nobody else could replace her husband in her heart. Zhao was an archeologist (Jin Shi Xue Jia) and a government official. No man could be compared with his excellence, after all.

Look at women today!  They can not wait to have affairs with a third man, let alone keeping to their only one.