Li Bai — Jade stairs complaint

Jade stairs complaint

Li Bai

701-762 CE
(translated by William P. Coleman)

The jade stairs give birth to clear dew;
in the late night it permeates gauze stockings.

Yet she lowers the crystal curtain;
jewel pendants tinkle, and she looks to the autumn moon.  

. I found the Chinese text and an English translation of this poem — along with the word-by-word literal translation I used to create this one — and very helpful notes — on pp. 105-6 of Whincup, Greg. The Heart of Chinese Poetry. Garden City: Anchor Press, Doubleday, 1987. ISBN 0-385-23967-X.

 Also at Chinese Poems.

 There are also translation materials for this poem at the website Tang Shi — 300 Tang Poems, from Wengu — Chinese Classics and Poems.

 And on p. 278 of Wai-Lim Yip’s book Chinese Poetry: an Anthology of Major Modes and Genres, Duke University Press, 1997; ISBN 0-8223-1946-2.

The grammar of Chinese allows poets to leave interpretive choices open, and it’s an unattainable ideal of translating to bring out possibilities without closing others. I try to use my sense of English to at least intrigue you. If I’ve succeeded, it’s best — even if you don’t know Chinese, which I don’t either — to follow up at the source I cite above and see the original word-by-word translation from which I worked. It’ll be richer than what I’ve given you. To understand the poem best, try to construct your own translation.

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 More Chinese poetry translations in this blog.
 Home page for my Li Bai translations.