Forbidden Love (topic)

COOL POEMS: Introduction > THE POEMS

Topic: Forbidden Love

Author: Lu You (1125-1210)

Pink, tender hands; fine golden wine,
Willows along the palace wall fill the town with Spring.
The Eastern wind is cruel, the spirit of welcome thin,
My heart still holds this anguish; how long now since you’ve gone?
Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

The Spring is as before, though I have grown wan;
Wet and red-stained streaks of tears have soaked my silken towel.
Peach blossoms fall, beside the tower’s pond;
My vows as firm as mountains; no way to send my love.
Gone. Gone. Gone.

 
Topic: Forbidden Love

Author: Tang Wan (mid-to-late 12th ac.)

The world has grown heartless; “Compassion” has all gone sour.
In the waning sun beyond the storm, how many petals fall?
The morning wind is dry, like the stains of all my tears.
I never speak my inner heart, only murmur to myself.
Cold! Cold! Cold!

We two are now alone; now is not before.
My weakened spirit frays like rope upon a child’s swing.
The morning trumpets are chill; the night will soon be over.
Always fearing peering eyes, swallowing tears and faking smiles,
Untold! Untold! Untold!

Comments: Lu You’s poem was a public affirmation of romantic love in defiance of both law and moral tradition. It was written to his former wife, Tang Wan. He and Tang Wan were deeply in love, but his mother forced them to divorce.  Years later, after both had remarried, Lu You passed through her village by chance. She sent him some fine wine as a gift. Hurt, he wrote this poem on a wall. After she learned of it, she wrote an equally wrenching response.  Both poems use the same lyric meter.  The English translation tries to capture something of the whimsical, lilting rhythm of the form, a rhythm which stands in ironic contrast to the tragic contents of the poems.
Not long after this event Tang Wan grew ill and died, apparently of heartbreak. Many years later, as an old man, Lu You returned to her village and dedicated two more poems to her memory. Above is the earlier poem, written on a village wall.

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