《敦煌曲子词》凤归云· 闺怨
征夫数载,萍寄他邦。
去便无消息,累换星霜
月下愁听砧杵起,塞燕南行。
孤眠鸞帐里,枉劳魂梦,夜夜飞扬。
想君薄行,更不思量。
谁为传书与,表妾衷肠?
依牅无言垂血泪,暗祝三光。
万般无奈处,一炉香尽,又更添香。
The cloud –winging Phoenix
A lady’s complaint in her boudoir <lyrics from Dunhuang>
He gone for years long-drafted
like duckweed floating in strange wild-current
beyond the moving-waves from my sight, vanished
only the grim alternation of frost and starry night left.
Moon night hearing mortar–and-pestle sounds up stretched,
and my eyes follow wild geese in southern flight;
yet bed down lonely with a mandarin duck curtain-bed
and in vain the silently-begged soul’s had flied
with longing for any destination in dream-driven night.
Thought about how a pity of long-drafted fate,
not dare to picture more about my irony-fated man;and
whoever could be a man, who could?
carry a love-letter for me to reach the master of my fate.
Leaning against the window, mute with the tear-eyed
wish and pray to sunlight and moon and star-eyed heart.
Time keeps jogging on,
yet the incense burned up as of yore,
and adding more there are always pale fingers betimes there.
Translation from the Chinese by jinsheng