Tears That Flow All Year Round
An incredibly ambiguous poem
Tears That Flow All Year Round
This poem is relatively simple, but is just ambiguous enough to make you wonder what in the world is going on here. The ambiguity in this poem is the sort of thing that keeps me up at night, wondering what the right translation and interpretation actually is.
I’ve tried to divide the poem up into a more sensible organization in my translation. Substack doesn’t give me a lot of formatting options, and so this is probably the best I can do at the moment.
My Translation
Worrying In Vain
One is an immortal flower in the garden of the immortals,
The other is flawless jade without a blemish.
If we say that there’s no wonderous fate,
Then why did I meet him in this life?
And yet, if we say that there is wonderous fate,
Why do all the hopes of my heart end up in vain?
One sighs to no avail,
One worries in vain.
One is the moon reflected in the water,
The other is a flower reflected in the mirror.
How many tears can drip from the eyes
To flow from autumn through the end of winter,
And then on through spring and through the summer?
Translation Critique
Hawkes
David Hawkes clearly interprets this poem as being about both Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu:
In vain were all her sighs and tears,
In vain were all his anxious fears:
All, insubstantial, doomed to pass,
As moonlight mirrored in the water
Or flowers reflected in a glass.
However, Hawkes adds in his own interpretation to this poem with the line “All, insubstantial, doomed to pass.” It’s necessary to help 一個是水中月，一個是鏡中花 make sense – but, then again, it removes the delicious ambiguity from the poem.
Hawkes also sees the final line as referring directly to Lin Daiyu:
How many tears from those poor eyes could flow,
Which every season rained upon her woe?
It’s very well crafted poetry – but there’s an argument that it could also refer to Jia Baoyu’s reaction to the eventual death of Lin Daiyu.
Yang
The Yangs provide a translation that is much closer to the original, and that remains at least relatively ambiguous. The final lines are well done:
How many tears can well from her eyes?
Can they flow on from autumn till winter,
From spring till summer?
Chinese Text
枉凝眉
一個是閬苑仙葩，一個是美玉無瑕。若說沒奇緣，今生偏又遇著他；若說有奇緣，如何心事終虛化？一個枉自嗟呀，一個空勞牽掛。一個是水中月，一個是鏡中花。想眼中能有多少淚珠兒，怎禁得秋流到冬盡，春流到夏？
Translation Notes
枉凝眉 is a bit difficult to translate. 枉 means “in vain.” 眉 refers to eyebrows, and 凝 in this case seems to mean slow or sluggish. Based on this Baidu translation, it seems that 凝眉 means “to worry” when combined.
閬苑 (lángyuàn) means the place where immortals live; see here for more. 仙葩, meanwhile, means an immortal flower; 葩 (pā) means flower.
偏 is an adverb here, and means something like “but” or “unfortunately.” The closest equivalent in modern Chinese is 偏偏. Here, the poet is saying, “you can say that we’re not fated – but, if so, why did we meet?”
Should 他 mean “him” or “her?” There are reasons to believe that it could refer either to Jia Baoyu or Lin Daiyu. Remember that the character 她 (she, her) did not come into common use in Chinese until the 1910s thanks to the influence of European languages and the work of linguist Liu Bannong. I’m going to go with “him” in this case, and I’ll explain a little bit more in tomorrow’s commentary post. Both David Hawkes and the Yangs reword the poem to refer to “they,” resolving the ambiguity and making it clearly a poem about Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu.
嗟呀 (jiēyā) means to sigh.
牽掛 means to worry about or be concerned about.
Great translation and insightful comments.
The ambiguous subjects in this poem (the "we" and "I" could also read "you" and "they") pose a challenge to the translator, but it's interesting to see which interpretation the translator favors. I like your use of "one" to preserve the ambiguity, but I was curious which figure you'd associate with Baoyu or Daiyu, the moon's reflection or the flower's.
I think a key concept in this poem is 緣, which you've already explained in previous posts. The idea that romantic relationships are predestined. Many (most?) Chinese people still believe in it. It's hinted at in Baoyu's first remark to Daiyu: “这个妹妹我曾见过的”, which probably wouldn't work in the West.
One small question, if may: did you consider translating "一個是水中月，一個是鏡中花" ("One is the moon reflected in the water, / The other is a flower reflected in the mirror.") without adding "reflected"?
Hawkes and the Yangs also used "reflected", but Bonsall (who tends to favor literalness) didn't, translating it as:
"One is the moon in the water.
One is the flower in the mirror."
I understand that "reflected" clarifies the mataphor and is more idiomatic in English, but I worry it also (subtly) shifts the focus from illusion to object. Then again, it also helps signal the illusory nature to Western readers. Just wondering if this was something you struggled with. Thanks!