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Shēng Shēng MànSlow, Slow Tune 声声慢
Li Qingzhao's famous fourteen repeated characters of grief.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
寻寻觅觅
xún xún mì mì
冷冷清清
lěng lěng qīng qīng
凄凄惨惨戚戚
qī qī cǎn cǎn qī qī
乍暖还寒时候
zhà nuǎn huán hán shí hòu
最难将息
zuì nán jiāng xī
……
梧桐更兼细雨
wú tóng gèng jiān xì yǔ
到黄昏，点点滴滴
dào huáng hūn, diǎn diǎn dī dī
这次第
zhè cì dì
怎一个愁字了得
zěn yī gè chóu zì liǎo dé
Simplified characters; traditional title: 聲聲慢. This is a long poem; only the best-known lines are shown, and “……” marks omitted passages.
English translation
Searching, seeking, seeking, searching,
cold and lonely, lonely and cold,
desolate, wretched, sorrowful.
In this season of sudden warmth and lingering cold,
it is hardest to find rest.
(…)
The parasol tree, and a fine rain besides,
until dusk, drop by drop, dripping.
This state of things —
how could one word, "sorrow," cover it all?
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
The opening is famous for seven doubled characters in a row (寻寻觅觅，冷冷清清，凄凄惨惨戚戚), whose sounds create a feeling of aimless searching and spreading cold. The ending returns to sound with rain dripping on the parasol tree, drop after drop. The final question admits that language fails: the word "sorrow" is too small. Translating the repetitions is especially difficult; the English is only an approximation.
Background
Written in Li Qingzhao's later years, after the Jurchen conquest of the north, the death of her husband and the loss of their collection. Only the opening and ending are shown.
Key words
- 寻寻觅觅 xún xún mì mì
- searching and seeking
- 将息 jiāng xī
- to rest, to recover
- 梧桐 wú tóng
- parasol tree (wutong)
- 次第 cì dì
- situation, state of things
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).