Song of a Chaste Woman
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
鸳鸯会双死。
贞女贵殉夫，
舍生亦如此。
波澜誓不起，
妾心古井水。
English translation
The phoenix tree waits for its mate until it grows old; the mandarin ducks will die together.
A faithful wife prizes dying with her husband; in giving up her life she is even so.
She swears that no ripples shall rise: my heart is the water of an ancient well.
Meaning
The male wutong and the female tong tree spread their branches over one another and keep faith till old age; mandarin ducks go in pairs and stay together until death. A chaste woman's worth lies in dying for her husband's sake; to give her life for that is the highest good. I swear to Heaven that my heart is forever true and unchanging, like the water of an ancient well, pure and still, with never a ripple.
Background
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All his life Meng Jiao "was inept at providing for himself, poor to the very bone, his furs and hempen robes all patches and knots, yet he never lowered his brows into a look of piteous appeal" (from Accounts of Talented Men of the Tang). His poems mostly describe the lives and fortunes of poor scholars and often give voice to complaint against injustice; some also expose social inequity and express sympathy for the people's suffering. Although Meng Jiao belongs among the poets of "painstaking composition," his poetic manner is for the most part plain and natural and his expression of feeling deep and vivid, marking him out as distinctive in the poetry circles of his day. This poem is one of the representative works of his "painstaking" verse.