River Merchant’s Wife

River Merchant’s Wife



長干行 李白

妾發初覆額。折花門前劇。
郎騎竹馬來。繞床弄青梅。
同居長干裡。兩小無嫌猜。
十四為君婦。羞顏未嘗開。
低頭向暗壁。千喚不一回。
十五始展眉。願同塵與灰。
常存抱柱信。豈上望夫臺。
十六君遠行。瞿塘灩澦堆。
五月不可觸。猿聲天上哀。
門前遲行跡。一一生綠苔。
苔深不能掃。落葉秋風早。
八月胡蝶來。雙飛西園草。
感此傷妾心。坐愁紅顏老。
早晚下三巴。預將書報家。
相迎不道遠。直至長風沙。

李白’s 長干行, one of the most delicate Chinese classical poems,
had been translated into English by many poets.
“ River Merchant’s Wife” is one of the English Version translated
by Ezra Pound, an American poet:

River Merchant’s Wife

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 Chokan:
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 lookout?

At sixteen you departed,
You went into far Ku-to-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 Cho-fo-Sa.

-- Ezra Pound --


There were other classical poems of “ Merchant’s Wife ” or
"商人婦":

琵琶行 白居易

門前冷落車馬稀，老大嫁作商人婦。
商人重利輕別離，前月浮梁買茶去。
去來江口守空船，繞船月明江水寒。
夜深呼夢少年事，夢啼妝淚紅闌干。

羅嗊曲三首 劉采春 *

不喜秦淮水，生憎江上船。載兒夫婿去，經歲又經年。　
借問東園柳，枯來得幾年。自無枝葉分，莫怨太陽偏。
莫作商人婦，金釵當卜錢。朝朝江口望，錯認幾人船。
那年離別日，只道住桐廬。桐廬人不見，今得廣州書。
昨日勝今日，今年老去年。黃河清有日，白髮黑無緣。
昨日北風寒，牽船浦里安。潮來打纜斷，搖櫓始知難。

( * 劉采春 was a woman poet of the Tang dynasty period)

夢江南 溫庭筠

千萬恨，恨極在天涯。山月不知心裡事，水風空落眼前花。
搖曳碧雲斜。
梳洗罷，獨倚望江樓。過盡千帆皆不是，斜暉脈脈水悠悠。
腸斷白蘋洲。

江南曲 李益

嫁得瞿塘賈，朝朝誤妾期。
早知潮有信，嫁與弄潮兒。

喜春來(閨怨) 徐再思

妾身悔作商人婦。妾命當逢薄倖夫。別時只說到東吳。
三載餘。卻得廣州書。

They all described the repressed emotion and unspoken feelings
of the 商人婦, when they were thinking of their traveling merchant
husbands, the feelings of worries, loneliness, isolation, insecurity,
expectation, disappointment, frustration, and even regret or remorse.

Yeh Tze