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Jǐn SèThe Ornate Zither 锦瑟
Li Shangyin's most mysterious poem.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
锦瑟无端五十弦
jǐn sè wú duān wǔ shí xián
一弦一柱思华年
yī xián yī zhù sī huá nián
庄生晓梦迷蝴蝶
zhuāng shēng xiǎo mèng mí hú dié
望帝春心托杜鹃
wàng dì chūn xīn tuō dù juān
沧海月明珠有泪
cāng hǎi yuè míng zhū yǒu lèi
蓝田日暖玉生烟
lán tián rì nuǎn yù shēng yān
此情可待成追忆
cǐ qíng kě dài chéng zhuī yì
只是当时已惘然
zhǐ shì dāng shí yǐ wǎng rán
Simplified characters; traditional title: 錦瑟.
English translation
Why should the sad zither have fifty strings?
Each string, each bridge, recalls but vanished springs.
Zhuangzi in dawn dream was lost as a butterfly;
Wangdi entrusted his spring heart to the cuckoo's cry.
Bright moon on the vast sea—pearls have tears;
Warm sun at Lantian—jade gives rise to smoke.
This feeling might wait to become remembrance,
Yet even then I was already lost in a daze.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
The poem is built from allusions: Zhuangzi's butterfly dream, the legendary king of Shu who became a cuckoo, mermaids whose tears turn to pearls, the jade of Lantian that shimmers in sunlight. Each image is beautiful and unreachable. Together they suggest dreams, loss and things seen only from a distance. The final couplet says that the feeling was bewildering even when it happened — so the reader's bewilderment is part of the experience.
Background
One of Li Shangyin's late works. Its meaning has been debated for a thousand years: a lament for his wife, a hidden love affair, a reflection on his own poetry, or his whole life looked back upon.
Key words
- 锦瑟 jǐn sè
- an ornate se, a long zither
- 华年 huá nián
- youth, the flowering years
- 杜鹃 dù juān
- cuckoo
- 惘然 wǎng rán
- lost, bewildered
About the poet: Li Shangyin
Li Shangyin wrote dense, allusive and beautiful poems, many of them untitled love poems whose meaning is still debated. Caught between court factions, he never rose high in office.
Lifetime: c. 813–858. Other famous works: Night Rain: Sent North (夜雨寄北); Climbing Leyou Plain (登乐游原); Untitled (Hard Is the Meeting) (无题); The Ornate Zither (锦瑟); Clearing at Dusk (晚晴); Drunk Beneath the Flowers (花下醉); Frost and Moon (霜月).
Names from this poem
More by Li Shangyin
- Climbing Leyou Plain登乐游原
- Night Rain: Sent North夜雨寄北
- Untitled (Hard Is the Meeting)无题
- Clearing at Dusk晚晴
- Drunk Beneath the Flowers花下醉
- Frost and Moon霜月