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Rú Mèng LìngAs in a Dream II 如梦令
Li Qingzhao on crab-apple blossom after rain: "the green grows fat, the red grows thin".
Original Chinese text with pinyin
昨夜雨疏风骤
zuó yè yǔ shū fēng zhòu
浓睡不消残酒
nóng shuì bù xiāo cán jiǔ
试问卷帘人
shì wèn juàn lián rén
却道海棠依旧
què dào hǎi táng yī jiù
知否
zhī fǒu
知否
zhī fǒu
应是绿肥红瘦
yīng shì lǜ féi hóng shòu
Simplified characters; traditional title: 如夢令.
English translation
Last night the rain was sparse, the wind was fierce;
deep sleep did not dispel the last of the wine.
I asked the maid rolling up the blind —
she said the crabapple was just the same.
Don't you know?
Don't you know?
It must be: the green grown plump, the red grown thin.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
Li Qingzhao on crab-apple blossom after rain: "the green grows fat, the red grows thin". The scene stays with you.
Background
Li Qingzhao on crab-apple blossom after rain: "the green grows fat, the red grows thin".
Key words
- 雨疏 yǔ shū
- sparse rain; rain thinning
- 风骤 fēng zhòu
- a sudden wind; wind gusting
About the poet: Li Qingzhao
Li Qingzhao is China's most celebrated woman poet and a master of the ci (song lyric). Her early lyrics are bright and playful; after the fall of the north, the loss of her husband and her art collection, they turn to deep sorrow.
Lifetime: 1084–c. 1155. Other famous works: Slow, Slow Tune (声声慢); As in a Dream (如梦令); As in a Dream II (如梦令).