Interestingly I have 花开堪折直须折 in my big book of Chinese idioms, which I assume must come from this poem as it's so similar - I wonder why it changed slightly?
Yes, they're both known extant versions of this poem. There's just a lot of variation in the manuscripts that have come down to us over the centuries. In this case, the two versions are so similar that I didn't bother to take note, but sometimes they make a significant difference. My somewhat careless attitude, as a translator who isn't a manuscript historian, is that I will just pick the version I like best.
For example, the poem I'm working on at the moment has the line 共怜时世俭梳妆/共怜时世险梳妆, and I'm picking the second variant because it's a bit easier to understand. This is a method with no historical validity at all! And the potential for confusion and missed references is real. I don't have any good ideas on how to mitigate this problem at the moment, but I'll keep reading classical translations and see if anything pops up.
Interestingly I have 花开堪折直须折 in my big book of Chinese idioms, which I assume must come from this poem as it's so similar - I wonder why it changed slightly?
Yes, they're both known extant versions of this poem. There's just a lot of variation in the manuscripts that have come down to us over the centuries. In this case, the two versions are so similar that I didn't bother to take note, but sometimes they make a significant difference. My somewhat careless attitude, as a translator who isn't a manuscript historian, is that I will just pick the version I like best.
For example, the poem I'm working on at the moment has the line 共怜时世俭梳妆/共怜时世险梳妆, and I'm picking the second variant because it's a bit easier to understand. This is a method with no historical validity at all! And the potential for confusion and missed references is real. I don't have any good ideas on how to mitigate this problem at the moment, but I'll keep reading classical translations and see if anything pops up.