Where is the poem by Han Shi?

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Where is the poem by Han Shi?

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1matriochka
Modifié : Août 4, 2008, 7:38 am

I am now reading Cinquenta "Xiaoling" by Zhang Kejiu, a portuguese translation of fifty selected poems from Cent "Xiaoling" - Poèmes Classiques (Editions Littérature Chinoise, Collection Panda, Chine, 1996).
One of the poems has a footnote which explains a reference to a poem on a red leaf:
Han Shi, lady of the imperor Xuan Zong' palace (Tang Dynasty, mid IX century), wrote about her dull and freedom rage on a autumn leaf thrown to the palace moat. A man found the poem floating on the water and kept it. This same man, by hazard, ended marrying Han Shi.

Does anyone here have this poem by Han Shi? Since I can not read chinese, it could be an English or French or Spanish or Italian version.

2MMcM
Août 3, 2008, 7:50 pm

3matriochka
Août 3, 2008, 8:42 pm

Thank you, MMcM.
I had been searching the web and did not find.
Right now, I have this problem: my browser does not open that site. Anyway, I will keep trying.

4MMcM
Août 3, 2008, 8:51 pm

A Poem on a Floating Red Leaf
How fast this water flows away!
Buried in the women's quarters,
The days pass in idleness.
Red leaf, I order you --
Go find someone
In the world of men.

5matriochka
Août 4, 2008, 6:19 am

Once more, thank you.

I will try to make a portuguese version of the poem.

I think yhe story round this poem (if it is true) is so beautiful. It reminds me the metaphor of poetry - and writing in general - as a bottle thrown to the see. We never now if the bottle will find a shore or a pair of hands (and eyes). In this case, it was not a bottle, it a was a red leaf, and it was not the sea but the palace moat... But the principle is the same.

Today, my browser is doing fine with The Questia Online Library. I did not Know it. It seems very interesting. I am going to explore.