李清照·《怨王孙·帝里春晚》英译

帝里春晚，重门深院，草绿阶前，暮天雁断。楼上远信谁传？恨绵绵。

多情自是多沾惹，难拚舍。又是寒食也，秋千巷陌人静，皎月初斜，浸梨花。

In the Capital
—to the tune of Yuangwangsun

Spring is late in the Imperial Capital,
My wooden doors are shut.
My courtyard is deeply hidden.
Grass turns green in front of my stepping-stone.
Lines of wild geese vanish from the evening sky,
Who will send afar my messages from my chamber (1)?
Sorrow, my recurrent sorrow.

One deep in love is by nature involved in trouble.
A hard thing to be free of.
Again the Cold-Food Festival (2) approaches.
The deep-hidden lane is empty.
A swing stands still.
The bright beams shine aslant
Soaking pear blossoms in moonlight.


(1)wild geese: The wild geese were traditionally said to be message carriers. It was said that when people wanted to communicate with each other, they bound their letters on the feet of the wild geese, and let them fly to their destination, just as we use doves for sending messages. The wild geese flying in formation are a common image in Ci poetry, because their formations spelt out words such as ren, a man or ī, the numeral one.
(2)"Cold Food Festival": According to Chinese history in ancient time, it happened in one of the kingdoms in north China. It was a spring day that the people were told not to eat cooked food for the memory of the death of a king's earlier friend. This was the beginning of story "Cold Food Festival".
As to the exact day of the Memorial Day, it was about on the previous day of the Traditional Qingmingjie, which is usually on the 4th or the 5th day of April each year.

（茅于美 译）