She Sees Him Not
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
海燕双栖玳瑁梁。
九月寒砧催木叶，
十年征戍忆辽阳。
白狼河北音书断，
丹凤城南秋夜长。
谁为含愁独不见，
更教明月照流黄。
English translation
The young wife of the Lu house in her hall of turmeric; sea swallows roost in pairs upon the tortoiseshell beam.
The ninth month's cold fulling-block hurries the leaves to fall; ten years of garrison duty, and she remembers Liaoyang.
North of the White Wolf River, all letters have ceased; south of the Red Phoenix City, the autumn nights are long.
Who has made her, full of sorrow, unseen and alone — and still bids the bright moon shine upon her yellow silk curtains?
Meaning
The young wife of the Lu family lives within a fine house whose walls are plastered with earth mixed with turmeric; sea swallows come flying and perch in pairs upon the painted beams.
In the ninth month, after the cold wind, amid the urgent sound of the fulling blocks, the leaves come falling one by one; her husband has been gone to war in Liaoyang for more than ten years, and she is sick with longing.
All word from the Liaoyang country north of the White Wolf River is cut off; the young wife who dwells in seclusion in the southern quarter of Chang'an finds the autumn nights especially long.
Who is it that fills her with sorrow so that she cannot see her dear one, and lets the moonlight shine in vain upon her bed curtains?
Background
Read the background
In the Song scholar Guo Maoqian's Collection of Music Bureau Poetry, chapter 75, this poem bears the title "None Sees Me"; but the Dunhuang fragment Collected Verses of the Scholars of the Pearl Court, in which the poem is earliest preserved, titles it "Olden Themes," as does the Finest Blossoms of the Literary Garden compiled in the early Northern Song, chapter 205, while the Collection of Gifted Airs compiled by Wei Hu of the Five Dynasties, chapter 3, titles it "Olden Themes: Presented to Qiao Zhizhi, Reminder of the Court," and the Complete Tang Poetry, chapter 96, titles it "Olden Themes: Presented to the Reminder Qiao Zhizhi." From the title we know the poem was addressed to Qiao Zhizhi, who then held the post of Reminder. In 686, the second year of the Chuigong era, Liu Jingtong, General of the Left Leopard-Tally Guard, marched north against the Tongluo and the Pugu, and Qiao Zhizhi was commissioned to act as investigating censor and accompany the army; this is clearly recorded in Chen Zi'ang's "Inscription on the Portrait of a Soldier at Yanran." Shen Quanqi's poem must have been written at that time, hence his addressing Qiao as "Reminder." Only after that campaign was over did Qiao Zhizhi return to court and be promoted to Gentleman of the Left Bureau; the affair of his concubine's being taken from him occurred in 690, the first year of Zaichu — that is, the first year of Tianshou (in the ninth month of that year the reign title was changed to Tianshou).