Dynasty: Han Dynasty

Author: Sima Xiangru

Original text:

There is a beauty who will never forget.
After a day's absence, I think like crazy.
The phoenix flies and seeks its mate from all over the world.
But beauty is not on the east wall.
I will talk about Qin and write about my heart.
When I see Xu Xi, I will be comforted.
I wish to speak with virtue and join hands.
Don't fly away, make me perish.

Phoenix, phoenix, return to hometown, travel around the world to seek her husband.
I have never met a general before. How can I realize that I am now in the hall!
There are gorgeous ladies in the boudoir, and people in the room poison me.
He Yuan is a mandarin duck. Hu fights and flies together!
Yuxi, Yuxi, from my perch, I have to bear my tail and become a concubine forever.
Friendship, communication and harmony, who knows the middle night phase?
Both wings rise and fly high, without feeling I want to make me sad.

translation
There is a beautiful woman. I can't forget seeing her face.
After missing her for a day, I felt like going crazy.
I am like the phoenix flying high in the sky, looking for the phoenix everywhere in the world.
It's a pity that the beauty is not near the east wall.
I substitute the sound of the piano for the words of love in my heart. Let's just describe the feelings in my heart.
When can I promise marriage and comfort me to wander back and forth?
I hope my virtue can match with yours, hand in hand.
I don't know what to do. I can't fly with you for a long time. As a result of this injury, I am trapped in love sorrow and want to die.

Fengniao, Fengniao, returned to their hometown, and they were nowhere to be found. They only visited the world to find the phoenix in their hearts.
When I didn't meet the phoenix, I didn't know where I was going. How can I understand what I felt after I came here today?
There is a beautiful, elegant and quiet woman in her room. Although she lives near, this beautiful woman is far away from me. Missing her is killing my heart.
How can I get such a good marriage, become a couple, and be the loving cross necked mandarin duck? I hope I can fly with you, the phoenix, and swim in the sky.
Yuniao, Yuniao, I wish you to live with me, be inseparable, nurture children, and be my spouse forever.
Like one another, the two hearts are harmonious. Follow me in the middle of the night, who will know?
Spread your wings and fly far away. In vain, I miss you and make me sad.

author

Sima Xiangru (about 179-118 BC), known as Changqing, is a Han nationality from Anhan County, Bajun (Peng'an County, Nanchong City, Sichuan Province today), and Shujun (Chengdu, Sichuan Province today). A great writer of ci fu in the Western Han Dynasty. Sima Xiangru is an outstanding representative in the history of Chinese culture and literature, a great litterateur and an outstanding politician in the period of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Jing, he served as a cavalry and was exempt from illness. Gongci Fu, whose representative work is Zi Xu Fu. His works are rich in words and grand in structure, making him a representative writer of Han Fu, which is called Fu Sheng and "Ci Zong" by later generations. His love story with Zhuo Wenjun is also widely spread. Lu Xun's Outline of the History of Han Literature also put the two men in a special section for comment, pointing out that "in the time of Emperor Wu, the literati were not like Sima Xiangru in Fu, and not like Sima Qian in literature."