Phoenix Hairpins
钗 头 凤
红 酥 手， 黄 縢 酒
满 城 春 色 宫 墙 柳。
东 风 恶 欢 情 薄
一 杯 愁 绪
几 年 离 索， 错 错 错。
春 如 旧， 人 空 瘦
泪 痕 红 浥 鲛 绡 透。
桃 花 落 闲 池 阁
山 盟 虽 在
锦 书 难 托， 莫 莫 莫。
Chai Tou Feng
Hong su shou, huang teng jiu
Man cheng chun se gong qiang liu.
Dong feng wu,huan qing bo
Yi bei chou xu
Ji nian li suo, cuo cuo cuo.
Chun ru jiu, ren kong shou
Lei hen hong yi jiao xiao tou.
Tao hua luo xian chi ge
Shan meng sui zai
Jin shu nan tuo, mo mo mo.
Phoenix Hairpins
Rice flour snacks with Huang Teng wine
City walls full of spring colors, palace-like walls with willow trees.
Dislike destructive east winds, joyful feelings frail and fleeting
One cup of moody sorrows, interlocked mistakes and errors.
Spring like the olden days, human life empty and thin
Tear stains on raw silk, also fell into a pot and then turned red.
Peach blossoms fall down around the ponds of Xianchi Pavilion
Under the mountains we made promises to one another
Difficult to send Jinshu love letters
Then no one, none, nothing!
Notes:
Huang teng wine: A type of local rice wine, sealed in a pot and covered in mud to ferment and age.
Jinshu: An official historical text about the Jin Dynasty, compiled in 648 AD during the Tang Dynasty.
[In 1143, Lu sent a precious phoenix hairpin to Tang Wan as a token of love and proposal of marriage. Lu was age eighteen and Tang was fifteen. After being married for only three happy years, his mother broke them up. Then in 1153, Lu failed the imperial exams and went to Shenyuan, near the city of Shaoxing, where he met Tang again. Here and then he wrote this poem.]