Sunday Poem 2024 3 23: The Wise Move & The Good Keep Still

Spring winds, though fond of them myself,

Spring things are way too flourishing, flourishing.

If I could make Spring intent

on sending only a single fragrant bough

this would cut off Spring’s entire intention.

Before Spring even began, my heart was broken.

• Li Shangyin, c.840 c.e.

春風虽自好
春物太昌昌
若教春有意
惟遣一枝芳
我意殊春意
先春已断肠

Li Shangyin’s poem is called “Spring Wind”.

The title of this newsletter is a line from The Analects of Confucius, which might be from something Confucius said 14oo years before this poem was written.

The Tang Dynasty (618–907) was, perhaps, the most vast empire of its time, culturally, technologically, and geographically.

There was a stretch of about 100 years when poetry was the supreme art form of this multicultural, multireligious, super-complex society. These poets set the tone for East Asian poetry and literary effort right up through the present day.

Decadence and carelessness set in, and a gigantic, murderous revolution killed millions upon millions. China was so huge relative to the rest of the world that these deaths might have been 5 or 10 percent of the total human population. Or more. Estimates range as high as 36 million dead.

This blew out the heart of the realm. Yet, it recovered and its society re-formed, if not reformed. During this re-formation a new style of strange, assertive, ironic, and bitter poetry emerged. And Li, it seems, is our voice of those generations.

(-)

As always, I try to balance the literal Chinese with the lyric voice of American English… that is, what our songs sound like.

I kept the repetition of the word “spring” (春) in the lines it appears (lines 1, 2, 3, 5, 6)

I created stanzas so the flip at the end is highlighted, and so the irony of the first two lines is preserved.

The character for “intent/desire/idea” (意) ends lines 3 & 5, so i set the three lines together.

I don’t know enough to have a feeling for Li’s aesthetic intention, but he moves me and what i feel from him feels relevant to us… the poem was written nearly 1200 years ago.

Thanks for reading, and those who know Chinese better than me, please comment.