No birds, no bees

Helan sees a wife abandoned

A Hard Road to Walk (3)
Helan Jinming

Don’t you see?
The branches are barren, the flowers have fallen
Where bees were prospecting, 
Now nothing.
Don’t you see?
No swallows are nesting the clay on the rafters,
The high winds of autumn
Are blowing.
Her man far from home on an army campaign,
In her bedroom she paints gorgeous eyebrows in vain,
Just waiting.
From her long years alone come unbidden tears
Like the nightbird that over and over one hears
Keening.

贺兰进明  行路难五首·其三
君不见荒树枝，春花落尽蜂不窥。
君不见梁上泥，秋风始高燕不栖。
荡子从军事征战，蛾眉婵娟空守闺。
独宿自然堪下泪，况复时闻乌夜啼。

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The birds and the bees are symbols of fecundity in China, too.

In this installment, Helan has pushed the Hard Road to Walk theme beyond its breaking point, I think. This title is usually associated with a seize the day theme, and we can trace the logical progression that has brought us here. Seize the day! To support that we must argue that: Time is short! And why is time so short? Everything changes! Like, for example…? The beauty of a young woman declines! And so we might write about: She feels really sad!

That’s where we’ve got to - but this is really a different genre of poem. The abandoned wife theme was also a very popular topic for Tang poets (see the Out of Sight poems, for example), but it’s not the same as a seize the day. Helan has allowed his themes to slide into each other - but it’s striking that when he slides, he slides along very familiar grooves, from one well-established poetic theme to another. He is not exploring new poetic ideas, here.