Listen to this articlein her quiet window
wang changling
too young to know what sorrow is, and
dressed for spring, to her bedroom chamber she climbs, and
as the budding green willow wounds her heart
she wonders why, just for a title, she sent him to war
The actual title is, in her quiet window, but I like too young to know what sorrow is.
A young wife encourages her new husband to join the Tang army and go off and fight the enemy at the border. The expectation is that he will return with honors. Most likely, the enemy were the Tibetans at the far west of the Chinese Empire or the Tartars to the north, but there were other enemies both foreign and internal with which the emperor had to dear with.
Wang Changling, the Tang poet, deals with the contradictory emotions of love and pride. The young wife’s pride in the rank and title her husband achieves if he is heroic is balanced with the risk in his death.
I have played around with the words and the rhyme and though incomparable with Wang Changling’s poetic gift, I hope I conveyed some sense of his meaning. Wang’s use of the willow is symbolic. In China, the willow branch is used to ward off evil spirits. More ominously, mourners carry willow branches with them on the way to the cemetery during the Qingming Festival, which, like our poem, takes place in early spring. It is a festival that loosely translates as Tomb-Sweeping festival.
Then too, in Mandarin, “willow” sounds the same as “to stay”.
Does she care?
Original Chinese
闺怨
王昌龄
闺中少妇不知愁
春日凝妆上翠楼
忽见陌头杨柳色
悔教夫婿觅封侯
闺怨
王昌龄 〔唐代〕
闺中少妇不知愁，春日凝妆上翠楼。(不知 一作：不曾)
忽见陌头杨柳色，悔教夫婿觅封侯。
译文及注释
译文一
闺中少妇未曾有过相思离别之愁，在明媚的春日，她精心装扮之后兴高采烈登上翠楼。
忽见野外杨柳青青春意浓，真后悔让丈夫从军边塞，建功封侯。
译文二
闺阁中的少妇从来不知忧愁；初春来临细心装扮，独自登上翠楼。
忽然见到路边杨柳新绿，心中一阵忧愁，悔不该叫夫君去从军建功封爵。
注释
闺怨：少妇的幽怨。闺，女子卧室，借指女子。一般指少女或少妇。古人”闺怨”之作，一般是写少女的青春寂寞，或少妇的离别相思之情。以此题材写的诗称“闺怨诗”。
“不知愁”一作”不曾愁”，则诗意大减。
凝妆：盛妆。
陌头：路边。
觅封侯：为求得封侯而从军。觅，寻求。
悔教：后悔让▲
赏析
唐代诗人王昌龄描写上流贵妇赏春时心理变化的一首闺怨诗。唐代前期，国力强盛。从军远征，立功边塞，成为人们“觅封侯”的重要途径。诗中的“闺中少妇”和她的丈夫对这一道路也同样充满了幻想。
题称“闺怨”，一开头却说“闺中少妇不曾愁”，似乎故意违反题面。其实，作者这样写，正是为了表现这位闺中少妇从“未曾愁”到“悔”的心理变化过程。丈夫从军远征，离别经年，照说应该有愁。之所以“不曾愁”，除了这位女主人公正当青春年少，还没有经历多少生活波折，和家境比较优裕（从下句“凝妆上翠楼”可以看出）之外，根本原因还在于那个时代的风气。在当时“觅封侯”这种时代风尚影响下，“觅封侯”者和他的“闺中少妇”对这条生活道路是充满了浪漫主义幻想的。从末句“悔教”二字看，这位少妇当初甚至还可能对她的夫婿“觅封侯”的行动起过一点推波助澜的作用。一个对生活、对前途充满乐观展望的少妇，在一段时间“不曾愁”是完全合乎情理的。
第一句点出“不曾愁”，第二句紧接着用春日登楼赏景的行动具体展示她的“不曾愁”。一个春天的早晨，她经过一番精心的打扮、着意的妆饰，登上了自家的高楼。春日而凝妆登楼，当然不是为了排遣愁闷（遣愁何必凝妆），而是为了观赏春色以自娱。这一句写少妇青春的欢乐，正是为下段青春的虚度、青春的怨旷蓄势。
第三句是全诗的关键，称为“诗眼”。这位少妇所见，不过寻常之杨柳，作者何以称之为“忽见”？其实，诗句的关键是见到杨柳后忽然触发的联想和心理变化。杨柳在古代人的心目中，不仅仅是“春色”的代替物，同时，它又是友人别离时相赠的礼物，古人很早便有折柳相赠的习俗。因为那迷茫和朦胧的杨花柳絮和人的离愁别绪有着某种内在的相似。故少妇见到春风拂动下的杨柳，一定会联想很多。她会想到平日里的夫妻恩爱，想到与丈夫惜别时的深情，想到自己的美好年华在孤寂中一年年消逝，而眼前这大好春光却无人与她共赏……或许她还会联想到，丈夫戍守的边关，不知是黄沙漫漫，还是和家乡一样杨柳青青呢？在这一瞬间的联想之后，少妇心中那沉积已久的幽怨、离愁和遗憾便一下子强烈起来，变得一发而不可收。“悔教夫婿觅封侯”便成为自然流淌出的情感。说到“忽见”，杨柳色显然只是触发少妇情感变化的一个媒介，一个外因。如果没有她平时感情的积蓄，她的希冀与无奈，她的哀怨与幽愁，杨柳是不会如此强烈地触动她“悔”的情感的。故曰少妇的情感变化看似突然，实则并不突然，而在情理之中。
本来要凝妆登楼，观赏春色，结果反而惹起一腔幽怨，这变化发生得如此迅速而突然，仿佛难以理解。诗的好处正在这里：它生动地显示了少妇心理的迅速变化，却不说出变化的具体原因与具体过程，留下充分的想象余地让读者去仔细寻味。
短篇小说往往截取生活中的一个横断面，加以集中表现，使读者从这个横断面中窥见全豹。绝句在这一点上有些类似短篇小说。这首诗正是抓住闺中少妇心理发生微妙变化的刹那，作了集中的描写，从而从一刹那窥见全过程。▲
appreciation
Wang Changling, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a boudoir grievance poem about the psychological changes of high-class ladies when they enjoyed spring. In the early Tang Dynasty, the national strength was strong. To join the army and make contributions to the frontier fortress has become an important way for people to “find marquis”. The “young lady in the boudoir” and her husband in the poem are also full of fantasies about this road.
The title is called “boudoir grievance”, but at the beginning, it said that “the young women in the boudoir never worry”, which seems to deliberately violate the title. In fact, the author wrote this way to show the psychological change process of this young lady from “never worried” to “regret”. My husband, who has been on an expedition and has been away for years, should be worried. Apart from the fact that the heroine was young and had not experienced many life twists and turns, and was relatively well-off (as can be seen from the next sentence, “Make up to go to Cuilou”), the fundamental reason for “never worrying” was the atmosphere of that era. Under the influence of the time fashion of “looking for marquis” at that time, the “looking for marquis” and his “young ladies” were full of romantic fantasies about this life path. Judging from the last sentence “repenting of teaching”, this young woman may even have played a role in helping her husband “find a marquis”. It is entirely reasonable for a young woman who is optimistic about her life and future to “never worry” for a period of time.
The first sentence is “never worry”, and the second sentence is followed by a specific demonstration of her “never worry” with the action of climbing the stairs in spring to enjoy the scenery. One spring morning, she went up to her own tall building after a lot of careful dressing. Climbing upstairs with makeup in spring, of course, is not for relieving depression (why bother with makeup), but for enjoying the spring scenery. This sentence describes the joy of young women’s youth, which is just for the next period of youth’s emptiness, youth’s hatred and broadness.
The third sentence is the key to the whole poem, which is called “the eye of poetry”. What the young woman saw was nothing but ordinary willows. Why did the author call it “sudden seeing”? In fact, the key to the poem is the association and psychological changes triggered by seeing willows. In the eyes of the ancient people, willows were not only a substitute for “spring scenery”, but also a gift given by friends when they left. The ancient people had the custom of giving away willows long ago. Because the confused and hazy willow catkins have some internal similarities with people’s sorrow for parting. Therefore, when young women see willows swayed by the spring wind, they will definitely associate a lot with them. She will think of the love between husband and wife in ordinary days, the deep feelings when parting with her husband, and the beautiful years that have passed away year by year in solitude, while no one enjoys the beautiful spring scenery with her… Maybe she will also think of the border that her husband guards, whether it is the yellow sand is long or the willows are green like home? After the association of this moment, the deep resentment, sadness of separation and regret that had been deposited for a long time in the young woman’s heart suddenly became strong and became irreversible. “Regret to teach my husband to find a marquis” becomes a natural emotion. Speaking of “sudden seeing”, it is obvious that willow color is just a medium and an external cause to trigger the emotional changes of young women. Without her usual emotional savings, her hopes and helplessness, her sorrow and sorrow, willows would not touch her “regret” feelings so strongly. Therefore, the young woman’s emotional changes seem to be sudden, but they are not sudden, but reasonable.
Originally, I was going to make up and go upstairs to watch the spring scenery, but it turned out to cause a deep resentment. This change happened so quickly and suddenly, as if it was hard to understand. Here is the advantage of poetry: it vividly shows the rapid change of young women’s psychology, but does not tell the specific reasons and process of the change, leaving enough room for imagination for readers to ponder.
Short stories often capture a cross section of life and focus on it, so that readers can see the whole leopard from this cross section. Jueju is similar to short stories in this point. This poem captures the moment of subtle psychological changes of the young women in the boudoir and makes a concentrated description, so as to glimpse the whole process from the moment. ▲
