Rú Mèng LìngAs in a Dream 如梦令
Li Qingzhao remembers boating as a girl and drifting deep into the lotus.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
常记溪亭日暮
cháng jì xī tíng rì mù
沉醉不知归路
chén zuì bù zhī guī lù
兴尽晚回舟
xīng jǐn wǎn huí zhōu
误入藕花深处
wù rù ǒu huā shēn chù
争渡
zhēng dù
争渡
zhēng dù
惊起一滩鸥鹭
jīng qǐ yī tān ōu lù
Simplified characters; traditional title: 如夢令.
English translation
I often recall that evening at the creekside pavilion,
so drunk we couldn't find the way home.
Our pleasure spent, we turned the boat back late
and strayed deep into the lotus flowers.
Row hard!
Row hard!
We startled up a whole shoal of gulls and egrets.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
Li Qingzhao remembers boating as a girl and drifting deep into the lotus. The scene stays with you.
Background
Li Qingzhao remembers boating as a girl and drifting deep into the lotus.
Key words
- 藕花 ǒu huā
- lotus blossoms (from the root-stock)
- 常记 cháng jì
- often I recall; I still remember
- 溪亭 xī tíng
- a pavilion by the stream
About the poet: Li Qingzhao
Li Qingzhao is China's most celebrated woman poet and a master of the ci (song lyric). Her early lyrics are bright and playful; after the fall of the north, the loss of her husband and her art collection, they turn to deep sorrow.
Lifetime: 1084–c. 1155. Other famous works: Slow, Slow Tune (声声慢); As in a Dream (如梦令); As in a Dream II (如梦令).