BOOKMARK

Melody of the Fa Sect Presenting Immortals: On a Sprig of Plum Blossom

By Wang Yisun Song Dynasty

English Poetic Translation

Tiered emeralds tower steep and high,
Slender jade beams so pure and bright,
Reflected deep in shallow, tranquil waves.
Years sweep past like fleeting clouds,
Arousing quiet sorrow in the heart,
How many springtimes have we met and changed?
I recall seeking wine amidst blossoming haunts,
When twilight fell on fading, graceful charms.
Now my soul is drowned in darkened grief.
And worse: these desolate, parting thoughts of late—
Surely the imperial carriage has forgotten
Its midnight return beneath the frozen moon.
Spring lingers on a single withered bough;
I curse the eastern wind that leaves my love
As distant as the vault of heaven.
Even now, remaining petals drift to stain
A traveler garment drenched with leaden tears.
Yet still I break this flowering branch with care,
To soothe the quiet anguish in my breast.

Classical Chinese & Pinyin

層綠峨峨，纖瓊皎皎，倒壓波痕清淺。
過眼年華，動人幽意，相逢幾番春換。
記喚酒尋芳處，盈盈褪妝晚。
已銷黯。
況淒涼、近來離思，應忘卻、明月夜深歸輦。
荏苒一枝春，恨東風、人似天遠。
縱有殘花，灑征衣、鉛淚都滿。
但殷勤折取，自遣一襟幽怨。

céng lǜ é é, xiān qióng jiǎo jiǎo, dào yā bō hén qīng qiǎn.
guò yǎn nián huá, dòng rén yōu yì, xiāng féng jǐ fān chūn huàn.
jì huàn jiǔ xún fāng chù, yíng yíng tuì zhuāng wǎn.
yǐ xiāo àn.
kuàng qī liáng, jìn lái lí sī, yìng wàng què, míng yuè yè shēn guī niǎn.
rěn rǎn yì zhī chūn, hèn dōng fēng, rén sì tiān yuǎn.
zòng yǒu cán huā, sǎ zhēng yī, qiān lèi dōu mǎn.
dàn yīn qín zhé qǔ, zì qiǎn yì jīn yōu yuàn.

Philological Direct Translation

Stacked greens towering lofty, slender jade glistening brilliant, inverted they press ripples trace clear and shallow.
Passing eye years of life, moving people secluded meaning, meeting how many times spring changes.
Remember calling wine seeking fragrance place, full and full fading makeup late.
Already consumed in dark sorrow.
Not to mention desolate, recently parting thoughts, should have forgotten, bright moon night deep returning carriage.
Dragging on one branch of spring, regretting east wind, person like heaven distant.
Even if there are remaining flowers, sprinkling traveler robe, lead tears all filled.
Only earnestly snapping off, self-dissipating one lapel of secluded resentment.

Scholarly Exegesis & Cultural Commentary

I. Formal Poetic Architecture & Meter

This masterpiece is composed under the strict lyrical tune pattern titled Melody of the Fa Sect Presenting Immortals, a relatively long Song Ci lyric characterized by intricate shifting meters, abrupt caesuras, and a melancholy, cascading cadence. The tune requires a delicate alternation between expansive, scenic preamble and intensely internalized, regretful lamentation. Wang Yisun employs shifting rhyme schemes that mirror the undulating motion of waves and the reluctant passage of time, balancing long, descriptive lines with sharp, broken phrases of emotional collapse.

II. Historical Chronology & Existential Impulse

Created during the twilight years of the Southern Song Dynasty, the lyric reflects the profound existential and political despair of loyalist literati witnessing the collapse of the imperial order under Mongol expansion. Wang Yisun, living as a member of the dispossessed elite in the former capital of Linan, channeled his grief for the fallen dynasty into mournful evocations of flora and nature. The imagery of fading spring, forgotten imperial carriages, and severed branches serves as a veiled elegy for a lost sovereign state and the irrevocable shattering of elite cultural life.

III. Line-by-Line Exegesis & Allusion Decoding

The poem opens with striking visual contrasts and structural progression, moving from majestic natural forms to the suffocating interiority of human sorrow.

Lines 1-2 (Opening Couplet): Line 1 ("Stacked greens towering lofty, slender jade glistening brilliant") and Line 2 ("inverted they press ripples trace clear and shallow") establish an ethereal landscape of towering evergreens and pristine jade-white blossoms mirrored in a clear stream, creating an atmosphere of fragile, cold perfection.
Lines 3-4 (First Antithetical Turn): Line 3 ("Passing eye years of life, moving people secluded meaning") and Line 4 ("meeting how many times spring changes") pivot from physical scenery to temporal melancholy, reflecting on the relentless cycle of seasons and the irreversible loss of youth.
Lines 5-6 (Second Antithetical Turn / Climax): Line 5 ("Remember calling wine seeking fragrance place") and Line 6 ("full and full fading makeup late") invoke nostalgic memory of past revelry in the capital, contrasting sharply with the present state of desolation ("Already consumed in dark sorrow").
Closing Lines (Resolving Couplet): The final lines ("Yet still I break this flowering branch with care, / To soothe the quiet anguish in my breast") resolve the poem in an act of poignant self-consolation, utilizing the broken plum blossom as both a physical token of grief and an anchor for enduring loyalty.

IV. Cultural Symbolism & Key Metaphors

The poem is deeply embedded in the traditional symbolic lexicon of classical Chinese literature.

Plum Blossom: Representing uncompromising moral integrity, resilience against frost, and solitary beauty, the plum branch here acts as a surrogate for the displaced scholar-official who refuses to surrender his principles.
Spring Wind and Falling Petals: Connoting the ruthless passage of time, political dislocation, and the dissipation of a refined civilization, falling petals reflect both personal bereavement and national tragedy.

V. Philosophical Core & Global Resonance

The lyrical fabric of the poem synthesizes Confucian moral steadfastness under political catastrophe with Daoist resignation to the flux of the natural world. Wang Yisun does not rail aggressively against fate; instead, he internalizes the tragedy, transforming physical decay and political trauma into a timeless meditation on loyalty, memory, and aesthetic grace. Its universal resonance lies in its poignant capture of human vulnerability when confronted with the irreversible dissolution of home and history.