Saturday, September 12, 2020

"Peony", a poem by Zhu Shuzhen, written in the 12th century

Sources:



Zhu Shuzhen (born circa 1135, died 1180) was a Chinese poet who lived during the Song dynasty. She married an official with whom she had a bad marriage. She either had an affair or killed herself, and after her death, her parents burned poetry that she had written.

Copies of Shuzhen's poetry was already circulating, and 339 shi and 33 ci by her could be reconstituted. Her poems dealt with the sorrows of love, and her collection is called Heartbreaking Verse. Because she adopted a few lines from Li Qingzhao's work, it is clear that Shuzhen was familiar with at least some of her poems.

The poem (in Traditional Chinese):

嫣嬈萬態呈殊芳,花品名中佔得王,
莫把傾城比顏色,從來家國為伊亡。

Simplified Chinese characters:

嫣娆万态呈殊芳,花品名中占得王,
莫把倾城比颜色,从来家国为伊亡。

Romanisation (my attempt at reconstructing Middle Chinese):

ʔˠiᴇn ȵiᴇuX mʉɐnH tʰʌiH ɖiᴇŋ d͡ʑɨo pʰʉɐŋ, hˠua pʰˠiɪmX miᴇŋ ʈɨuŋ t͡ɕiᴇm tək̚ ɦʉɐŋ,
mɑk̚ pˠaX kʰwiᴇŋ d͡ʑiᴇŋ piɪX ŋˠan ʃɨk̚, d͡zɨoŋ lʌi kra kwək̚ ɦˠiuᴇ ʔiɪ mʉɐŋ.

Modern romanisation:

Yān ráo wàn tài chéng shū fāng, huā pǐnmíng zhōng zhàn dé wáng,
mò bǎ qīngchéng bǐ yánsè, cónglái jiā guó wèi yī wáng.

Note: I used Old Chinese "kra" as I could not find the Middle Chinese form of "jiā". I also used M. C. "t͡ɕiᴇm" as it was the closest I could find to a Middle Chinese form of "zhàn".

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