Willow Cotton

Willow Cotton

In my last post, I mentioned that Yu Pingbo quoted from a poem by "Zhou Meicheng." I should have realized he was referring to Zhou Bangyan 周邦彦, an influential author of 'lyric' (ci 詞) poems in the 11th century. With a little help from an interesting blog called "Poetry Life" (Shici rensheng 诗词人生), I've put together a preliminary translation:

Brook-swept blossoms are never content to stay,	桃溪不作从容住
Yet autumn's lotus will have its way. There's no place to go on,	秋藕绝来无续处
To be together, like back then, on the bridge with dark red rail.	当时相候赤栏桥
So now I'm searching dead leaves in the dusty road;	今日独寻黄叶路
Out of the smoke, peaks rise up, endless green.	烟中列岫青无数
Men are like clouds, windswept and washed to sea,	人如风后入江云
But love is like cotton willow, rain-swept and stuck to the mud.	情似雨余黏地絮

桃溪不作从容住

秋藕绝来无续处

当时相候赤栏桥

今日独寻黄叶路

烟中列岫青无数

人如风后入江云

情似雨余黏地絮