无题之三

李商隐

相见时难别亦难， 东风无力百花残。
春蚕到死丝方尽， 蜡炬成灰泪始干。
晓镜但愁云鬓改， 夜吟应觉月光寒。
蓬莱此去无多路， 青鸟殷勤为探看。


Translation:

TO ONE UNNAMED III

Li Shangyin

Time was long before I met her, but is longer since we parted,
And the east wind has arisen and a hundred flowers are gone,
And the silk-worms of spring will weave until they die
And every night the candles will weep their wicks away.
Mornings in her mirror she sees her hair-cloud changing,
Yet she dares the chill of moonlight with her evening song.
It is not so very far to her Enchanted Mountain
O blue-birds, be listening!-Bring me what she says!

Introduction to the Poet

Li Shangyin (李商隱 Lǐ Shāngyǐn, also known as 李義山, Li Yishan) (between 810 and 813- 858), was a Chinese poet of the late Tang dynasty, born in Henei (now Qinyang, Henan Province). Along with Li He(李贺), he was much admired and "rediscovered" in the 20th century by the young Chinese writers for the imagist quality of his poems. He is particularly famous for his tantalizing "no title" (無題) poems.

Li had a moderately successful career in the imperial civil service, although he never obtained a high position, either because of factional disputes, or because of his association with Liu Fen (刘蕡), a prominent opponent of the eunuchs.
Li was a typical Late Tang poet: his works are sensuous, dense and allusive. The latter quality makes adequate translation extremely difficult. The political, biographical or philosophical implications supposed to be contained in some of his poems have been a subject of debate for many centuries in China.

His most famous and cryptic poem is called "Jin Se" (錦瑟) (the title is only taken from the first two characters of the poem, thus also a "no title" poem), which consists of 56 characters and a string of images. His "no title" poems are regarded as "pure poetry" by some modern critics.

Although more famous for his sensuous poems, Li indeed wrote in many styles. He can be either satirical, humorous or sentimental. Moreover, some ancient critics hold that he is the only poet who, in some of his poems, succeeds in imitating the masculine quality of Du Fu's works.