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Everlasting Longing: Part Two

By Li Bai Tang Dynasty

English Poetic Translation

The daylight fades, flowers veil in evening mist,
moonlight grows pale; grief keeps me wide awake.
Zhao zithers hush their carved, phoenix-headed posts,
Shu lutes prepare to pluck mandarin-duck strings.
This melody breathes longing, yet no one hears;
I wish the spring wind bore it to Yanran mountain,
while you remain afar across the azure sky.
The autumn-wave glances of my earlier days
have turned to gushing fountains of bitter tears.
If you doubt my heart is shattered deep within,
come back and see me before the shining mirror.

Classical Chinese & Pinyin

日色已盡花含煙，月明欲素愁不眠。
趙瑟初停鳳凰柱，蜀琴欲奏鴛鴦弦。
此曲有意無人傳，願隨春風寄燕然，憶君迢迢隔青天。
昔日橫波目，今成流淚泉。
不信妾腸斷，歸來看取明鏡前。

rì sè yǐ jìn huā hán yān,
yuè míng yù sù chóu bù mián.
zhào sè chū tíng fèng huáng zhù,
shǔ qín yù zòu yuān yāng xián.
cǐ qǔ yǒu yì wú rén chuán,
yuàn suí chūn fēng jì yàn rán,
yì jūn tiáo tiáo gé qīng tiān.
xī rì héng bō mù,
jīn chéng liú lèi quán.
bù xìn qiè cháng duàn,
gūi lái kàn qǔ míng jìng qián.

Philological Direct Translation

Sun color already finished flowers hold mist,
Moon bright about to whiten sorrow not sleeping.
Zhao zheng just stopped phoenix pillars,
Shu zhe about to play mandarin ducks strings.
This tune has intent no person transmits,
Wish to follow spring wind send Yanran,
Remembering you distant separated blue sky.
Former days horizontal waves eyes,
Now become flowing tears springs.
Not believe concubine intestines broken,
Return come look take bright mirror front.

Scholarly Exegesis & Cultural Commentary

I. Formal Poetic Architecture & Meter

This poem follows the ancient musical tune title Everlasting Longing, categorized under folk-style lyric poetry. Unlike strict regulated verse, it utilizes irregular line lengths shifting between seven characters, allowing for a breathless, emotional cadence that mirrors a restless mind. The rhyme scheme shifts dynamically across the stanzaic movement, anchored by level and oblique rhyme exchanges that underscore the psychological turbulence of separation.

II. Historical Chronology & Existential Impulse

Composed during the high Tang period under the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, the piece captures the pervasive social reality of separation caused by frontier military campaigns and imperial service. Li Bai adopts the persona of a palace woman or abandoned wife, a traditional literary trope used by court poets to symbolize the loyal minister alienated from imperial favor. The existential impulse is one of profound isolation, where geographical distance across the northern frontier mountains merges with emotional abandonment.

III. Line-by-Line Exegesis & Allusion Decoding

The poem traces a psychological descent from twilight melancholy into physical deterioration caused by lovesickness. The opening couplet establishes a fading diurnal landscape that directly triggers internal grief.

Lines 1-2 (Opening Couplet): The fading sun and mist-shrouded blossoms create a visual barrier, while the whitening moonlight heightens insomnia.
Lines 3-4 (First Antithetical Turn): Instruments from different regions, the Zhao zither and Shu lute, are silenced or tuned in vain, symbolizing broken harmony.
Lines 5-6 (Second Antithetical Turn / Climax): The speaker projects her unexpressed longing toward the distant northern frontier, symbolized by Mount Yanran, carried only by the spring wind.
Closing Lines (Resolving Couplet): The physical transformation from alluring eyes to tearful springs culminates in a direct challenge for the absent lover to witness her physical decay in the mirror.

IV. Cultural Symbolism & Key Metaphors

The imagery relies heavily on classical aesthetic tropes of longing and separation. The horizontal wave eyes represent the alluring, dynamic beauty of a woman in her youth, while the flowing tears transform natural elements into internal grief. Instruments like the zither and lute, complete with decorative phoenix pillars and mandarin-duck strings, evoke marital fidelity and broken union.

V. Philosophical Core & Global Resonance

The poem bridges Confucian duty and Daoist emotional spontaneity, highlighting the tragic toll of enforced separation. By transforming personal heartache into universal lyricism, Li Bai articulates a timeless human vulnerability that transcends the dynastic politics of the ancient court, speaking directly to the universal experience of longing across impassable distances.