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I hope you liked this bonus eventhough it's sad T-T...
I want to share with you the following important notes regarding the translation details and which might help you get an overall knowledge about 3 of the greatest poets of the Tang dynasty (618-907) ; Li Yu, Du Fu and Bai Juyi.
Note 1
故人以悲空 . 長覺定夢中。- 李煜
You have been in my dreams, old friend,
Parting from you brings solitary grief.
Actually, the translation of this line was not easy at all and took me 4 days (14 hours a day) to decipher it.
The lit. translation:
故人以悲空 . 長覺定夢中。- 李煜
Old man by empty grief , sleep decide forever in a dream. - Li Yu
1. 悲空 : Here 空 (lit. empty) means solitary.
> Solitary Grief : refers to a bleak and sorrowful heart. source
2. Who's Li Yu ?
Li Yu 李煜 was a poet and the last ruler of the Southern Tang dynasty (know as Jiangnan 江南) .
His country was invaded in 974 by Taizu, founder of the Song dynasty. When Li Yu’s capital, fell the next year, he surrendered and was taken to the Song capital, where he was an exiled prisoner for 2 years and died by poison in 976.
Li Yu's earlier poems reflect the gay and luxurious life at his court, (well this is an unexpected info ) though some are tinged with romantic melancholy. Britannica.com
He wrote later on several sad poems lamenting the vicissitude of his life, and others in which he expressed grief and despair at the loss of his son and successive wives and the loss of his kingdom. "The direct and powerful emotional appeal of these later works has won them lasting popularity."
3. Okay, so the 2 verses mentioned in the FMV
故 人 以 悲 空 長 覺 定 夢 中 。
sadly can't be found anywhere in Li Yu's repertoire .-. ( 🥲🥲 i'm cursing the director...)
BUT ''solitary grief" , "dream" and ''old country'' (we can relate a cherished friend to Country too T-T ) are mentioned in"Midnight Song" 子夜歌 , written in exile.
The interesting verses :
What limit is there to my solitary grief?
I returned to my homeland in a dream,
Sources : Li Yu wiki | Li Yu's poems (eng chinese pinyin)| Li Yu -24 poems- Eng | Li Yu's poems Eng - Chinese
(super cool websites for poetry lovers 🤩)
4. 長覺 (zhǎng jué) (Long/forever . sleep ).
These syllables together don't and won't make any sense.
To make it short, after countless researches and some luck, I modified them without altering the meaning and sound of each character as follows :
長覺 (zhǎng jué) becomes
长决 (cháng / zhǎng jué) means 永别 (Source) Farwell ; eternal parting (i.e. death)
😎😎😎😎
5. Ok, so I was still stuck, and ended up shamelessly asking a chinese guy in an app lol, but I wasn't satisfied with his translation (felt like the same as MTL).
I almost gave up earlier, until I found by chance the equivalent verses !!!
故人入我梦 You have been in my dreams, old friend,
明我长相忆 proof of how long I’ve pined
for you.
They are from Du Fu's poem "Dreaming of Li Bai" (1).
Du Fu 杜甫 (712–770) was a Chinese poet and politician of the Tang dynasty.
Along with his friend Li Bai , he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets.
Du Fu wrote the poem after his friend and fellow great Li Bai was exiled from government to the southern frontier.
"In the poem, he first compares the sorrow of parting with the dead to the sorrow of parting with an old friend. He has not heard any news from Li Bai in his exile, but sees him in a dream. "
The first verses of the poem :
死別已吞聲 Parting from the dead, must finally be choked down,
生別常惻惻 but parting from the living brings constant pain.
6. Finally, things became clearer ! 🎉 I connected all the puzzle pieces and rearranged the syllables, to get these lyrics xD
You have been in my dreams, old friend, (Du Fu x Li Yu)
Parting from you brings solitary grief. (Du Fu x Li Yu)
Note 2
As his mother, how can I wish his bones to be buried in the mud under the spring?
The expression in bold is from Bai Juyi (772–846) 's poem "Dream of Wei Zhi" 梦微之 in which he mourns his deceased close friend (male lol) Yuan Zhen.
Bai and Yuan had known each others for 30 years and exchanged over 900 poems, not certain if it was more than friendship...(unconditional gay love)... But you can read in this connection, the following article : The Gay Love Letters of Bo Juyi to Yuan Zhen and others, eventhough I personally find it a little subjective , this, after reading some of Bai Juyi's biography here : Bai Juyi's most touching poem was actually written to a man.
Nine years after Yuan Zhen's death, Bai Juyi dreamed of traveling with Yuan Zhen hand in hand, and wrote "Meng Wei Zhi" after waking up. (Wei Zhi is a nickname he gave to him)
君 埋 泉 下 泥 销 骨
By now your bones have disappeared under the mud and water springs
我 寄 人 间 雪 满 头。
For me, I have been halfway between white hair and the dirt.
Meaning: you have passed away for a long time, your bones have turned into sand/mud, and although I am still alive, my head is full of white hair, and my days are running out... T-T
You can read more about the meaning of the poem here : Translated page
Side Note : Bai Juyi is one of the main characters of the 2017 Chinese fantasy film Legend of the Demon Cat, where he is portrayed by Huang Xuan. In the movie, the poet is solving a murder mystery and struggles to finish his famous poem, "Song of Everlasting Regret". Wiki
Fun fact : I watched this movie less than a week ago xD ...
So in conclusion, Li Yu had gay adventures, Li Bai and Du Fu, and Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen exchanged -at least- farewell poems. This, makes me ask : Were they gay ? lol Well, I've never dreamed of a best friend nor will I dare send her a longing poem unless i'm .... x) but I'm not...
So, as mentioned above, there's no clear and confirmed answer to the question, plus, I personally tend to systematically deny chinese scholars who cover up those incomprehensible relationships under "Friendship", without providing really convincing evidence such this one : American scholar: Is the friendship of Chinese poets in the Tang Dynasty wrong? Professor Dai Jianye: You really don't understand
Also, homosexuality in the ancient era feels like being considered as "The dark hole" of China's History, and the goverment do its best to eradicate it. The evidence is 2018's incident (ban of all LGBT related stuff on weibo), censorship, and the "warning" regarding danmei adaptation in 2021...
I hope you liked this post !!
Feel free to share your point of view in comments !!
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