Untitled: You Came with Empty Words
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
月斜楼上五更钟。
梦为远别啼难唤，
书被催成墨未浓。
蜡照半笼金翡翠，
麝熏微度绣芙蓉。
刘郎已恨蓬山远，
更隔蓬山一万重！
English translation
Your coming was an empty promise, you went without a trace, the moon slants above the tower, the fifth-watch bell.
In dream I weep for the far-off parting and cannot be woken, the letter, written in haste, its ink not yet thick.
Candlelight half-veils the golden kingfisher, musk faintly crosses the embroidered lotus.
Liu Lang already grieved that Penglai was far, and now ten thousand ranges of hills lie beyond!
Meaning
You said you would come, and it proved an empty word; once gone, you left no trace. I waited until the waning moon above the tower slanted westward, and heard the bell of the fifth watch at dawn.
In dream I wept over our long parting and could not be roused for a long while; on waking, the ink I ground was still thin, yet I hurriedly took up the brush and wrote a letter.
The candle's dying light half shrouds the curtains sewn with golden kingfishers; the scent of orchid and musk has steeped the lotus blossoms embroidered upon the quilt.
I am like Liu Lang of old, who long resented the distance of Mount Penglai; but the place you have gone to lies ten thousand ranges beyond even Penglai!
Background
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The exact date of the four untitled poems is difficult to establish. Their forms vary, and no necessary connection can be seen among them in content; they need not be a group written at one time upon a single theme. This poem is one of them.