The classical story revolves around the lives of the patriotic poet of the Southern Song dynasy, Lu You (1125-1210) and his first wife, his cousin Tang Wan. The couple loved each other profoundly but were forced to separate by Lu You's mother. For some time after their divorce, they met secretly, and Lu You intentionally failed the civil service examinations to avoid taking an official position in another city. Lu You's mother was able to break up the relationship, and Lu You later served as an official in distant locations. Tang Wan remarried a member of the imperial family, and Lu You remarried a woman né Wang. A decade later, the lovers encountered each other at the Shen Garden, outside the city. Lu You composed a poem about their passion love in the song-lyric (ci) format and inscribed it on the garden wall. Tang Wan responded in a poem of the same title and eventually died of a broken heart. This story reminds me of writing on the trees or bamboo tree for unspoken feelings when we were young. I like these two poems, although I can not read Chinese. I discover these two poems from some reading on the internet. Enjoy!
Hands of a delicate tint
Pour golden wine
The city all in spring, and she,
the willow behide the palace wall
And east wind, full of malice
Brought thin joy and a skein of sorrows.
Years of separation.
Wrong, wrong, wrong
Spring still spring
It's we, without reason, waste away
Tears streak rough, stain silks
Peach blossoms fall
Your room by the pond, empty .
What good our vows have stood like mountains?
With even letters barred.
And nothing, nothing, nothing
Her Reply:
「釵頭鳳」·唐婉
世情薄，人情惡，雨送黃昏花易落。
曉風乾，淚痕殘，欲箋心事，獨語斜闌，難！難！難！
人成各，今非昨，病魂長似鞦韆索。
角聲寒，夜闌珊，怕人尋問，咽淚裝歡，瞞！瞞！瞞！
Vicious humans in the harsh world,
The dusk falls with rain and the flowers are easily withered and faded away,
The wind blows drying the tears,
Thoughts is too much to be written down
It is so difficult to tell, so difficult to tell.
We change as time goes on,
The ill soul is just like the motion of swing.
The cold unfeeling sound of clarion, the night comes to an end
Swallowing my tears I pretend to be happy,
so no one would notice my feeling and question me.
世情薄，人情惡，雨送黃昏花易落。
曉風乾，淚痕殘，欲箋心事，獨語斜闌，難！難！難！
人成各，今非昨，病魂長似鞦韆索。
角聲寒，夜闌珊，怕人尋問，咽淚裝歡，瞞！瞞！瞞！
Vicious humans in the harsh world,
The dusk falls with rain and the flowers are easily withered and faded away,
The wind blows drying the tears,
Thoughts is too much to be written down
It is so difficult to tell, so difficult to tell.
We change as time goes on,
The ill soul is just like the motion of swing.
The cold unfeeling sound of clarion, the night comes to an end
Swallowing my tears I pretend to be happy,
so no one would notice my feeling and question me.
Hiding my feeling, Trying hard to hide it.
