The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter
BY EZRA POUND
After Li Po
While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead
I played about the front gate, pulling flowers.
You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,
You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums.
And we went on living in the village of Chōkan:
Two small people, without dislike or suspicion.
At fourteen I married My Lord you.
I never laughed, being bashful.
Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.
Called to, a thousand times, I never looked back.
At fifteen I stopped scowling,
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours
Forever and forever, and forever.
Why should I climb the look out?
At sixteen you departed
You went into far Ku-tō-en, by the river of swirling eddies,
And you have been gone five months.
The monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead.
You dragged your feet when you went out.
By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses,
Too deep to clear them away!
The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.
The paired butterflies are already yellow with August
Over the grass in the West garden;
They hurt me.
I grow older.
If you are coming down through the narrows of the river Kiang,
Please let me know beforehand,
And I will come out to meet you
As far as Chō-fū-Sa.
长干行
妾发初覆额，折花门前剧。
郎骑竹马来，绕床弄青梅。
同居长干里，两小无嫌猜。
十四为君妇，羞颜未尝开。
低头向暗壁，千唤不一回。
十五始展眉，愿同尘与灰。
常存抱柱信，岂上望夫台。
十六君远行，瞿塘滟预堆。
五月不可触，猿声天上哀。
门前迟行迹，一一生绿苔。
苔深不能扫，落叶秋风早。
八月蝴蝶黄，双飞西园草。
感此伤妾心，坐愁红颜老。
早晚下三巴，预将书报家。
相迎不道远，直至长风沙。
- 注解
- １、床：这里指坐具。
２、抱柱信：《庄子·盗跖》“尾生与女子期于梁下，女子不来，水至不去，抱梁柱
而死。”
３、不道远：不会嫌远。
４、长风沙：地名，在今安徽安庆市东的长江边上。地极湍险。
- 韵译
- 记得我刘海初盖前额的时候，常常折一枝花朵在门前嬉戏。郎君总是跨着竹竿当马骑来，手持青梅绕着交椅争夺紧追。长期来我俩一起住在长干里，咱俩天真无邪相互从不猜疑。十四岁那年作了你结发妻子，成婚时羞得我不敢把脸抬起。自己低头面向昏暗的墙角落，任你千呼万唤我也不把头回。十五岁才高兴地笑开了双眉，誓与你白头偕老到化为尘灰。你常存尾生抱柱般坚守信约，我就怎么也不会登上望夫台。十六岁那年你离我出外远去，要经过瞿塘峡可怕的滟堆。五月水涨滟难辨担心触礁，
猿猴在两岸山头嘶鸣更悲凄。门前那些你缓步离去的足印，日子久了一个个都长满青苔。苔藓长得太厚怎么也扫不了，秋风早到落叶纷纷把它覆盖。八月秋高粉黄蝴蝶多么轻狂，双双飞过西园在草丛中戏爱。此情此景怎不叫我伤心痛绝，终日忧愁太甚红颜自然早衰。迟早有一天你若离开了三巴，应该写封信报告我寄到家来。为了迎接你我不说路途遥远，哪怕赶到长风沙要走七百里！
- 评析
- 这是一首写商妇的爱情和离别的诗。诗以商妇的自白，用缠绵婉转的笔调，抒写了她对远出经商丈夫的真挚的爱和深深的思念。
诗的开头六句是回忆与丈夫孩提时“青梅竹马，两小无猜”的情景，为读者塑了一对少年儿童天真无邪，活泼可爱的形象。“十四为君妇”四句，是细腻地刻划初婚的羞涩，重现了新婚的甜蜜醉人。“十五始展眉”四句，写婚后的热恋和恩爱，山盟海誓，如胶似漆。“十六君远行”四句，写遥思丈夫远行经商，并为之担心受怕，缠绵悱恻，深沉无限。“门前迟行迹”八句，写触景生情，忧思不断，颜容憔悴。最后四句，写寄语亲人，望其早归。把思念之情更推进一步。
全诗形象完整明丽，活泼动人。感情细腻，缠绵婉转；语言坦白，音节和谐；格调清新隽永，是诗歌艺术上品。“青梅竹马”“两小无猜”，已成描摹幼男幼女天真无邪情谊的佳语。
Very much Japanese translation of place names.
Visual Imagery of innocence, to apathy to love and to reminiscence, through the passage of time.
The river, a symbolism of the wife's tension and flow of emotions.
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