Spring Rain
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
白门寥落意多违。
红楼隔雨相望冷，
珠箔飘灯独自归。
远路应悲春晼晚，
残宵犹得梦依稀。
玉珰缄札何由达，
万里云罗一雁飞。
English translation
Sad, I lie in my white jacket in the new spring, at Baimen all is desolate, and much goes against my wish.
The red tower coldly gazes through the rain, pearl blind and drifting lamp, I go home alone.
On the far road you must grieve the waning spring, in the last of the night I still have dreams, faint and dim.
How can jade earrings and a sealed letter reach you? Ten thousand li of cloud, and one wild goose flying.
Meaning
In the new spring season I lie disconsolate upon my bed, a white robe about me; the White Gate of our tryst has grown desolate, and it grieves me beyond measure.
Through the fine rain I gaze at the red chamber, which seems more forlorn still; I can only make my way back through the rain that hangs like a beaded curtain, amid fitfully glimmering lamplight.
In this sorrowing late spring, on so long a road, where can I lodge my bitter grief? Only in the dreams of the waning night may I see you.
The earrings and the letter of love are ready; how can they ever reach you? I can only set my hope upon the wild goose that has just come flying through the vast sky.
Background
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"Spring Rain" was written in 850 (the fourth year of the Dazhong era), shortly after the poet first joined the staff at Xuzhou, when he thought of home on a rainy night. Some say it was written in memory of home while he was sojourning in Chang'an; others take it as a veiled expression of Li Shangyin's hope for patronage and promotion. Most readers regard it simply as a love poem. Yet whom it is that the poet longs for remains a matter of considerable dispute.