Today Ms. Kowawa decided to take on a new task: to translate Lord Li's poems one by one in a chronological order into English.
Lord Li (Li Yu), 937-978, was one of the greatest poets in Chinese history. I wrote an introductory essay about his life a couple weeks ago. The essay can be found in the blog.
Lord Li's works were closely tied to his life, which can be seperated into mainly 3 parts: birth-age 25, Prince; Age 25-40, King; and age 40-41, prisoner.
This poem was written before his enthronement. Vividly describing a morning dance party , it casts a light on his earlier life as a worry-free young prince.
While the sun rises high above,
aroma from incense cones slowly wakes up.
The carpet of red silk wrinkles,
as she walks up step by step.
The gold hairpin slips in a swirl dance,
The scent of flower buds drives away the tipsiness.
Flute and drum’s fainting sound,
from other palaces it echoes around.
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