The Jade Pavilion Songs

With a controversial new organisation!

I doubt this is real controversy, but I’m going to break with the numbering of the poems that I found in the most easily downloadable edition of the Complete Tang Poetry. The thing is, I think poems in the big anthologies are grouped together purely based on their titles. So there are 12 Jade Pavilion Songs by Quan Deyu - except they fall fairly clearly into three groups. There’s a cycle of ten poems that share the same form, and tell a clear narrative of a husband and wife being together, being separated, and then the husband finally returning. Then there are two singletons, poems of different meter, and somewhat different tone. So I’m presenting them here as separate, not a single cycle of twelve poems.

These poems are in a style called court poetry, which essentially means that it described upper-class sensual pleasures rather than teaching moral lessons. The name of the series, Jade Pavilion Songs, comes from an anthology of poetry in this style which was released during the period of disunity before the Tang. Conventionally, that period has been remembered as a time of general immorality, when the upper classes indulged themselves rather than running the world properly - hence the failure of the empire to hold together.

This singleton is a nice example, because it focuses on a single moment of sexual attraction.

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Jade Pavilion Songs (Orchid in Bloom)
Quan Deyu

Orchid in bloom,
    A phoenix coos,
        Arcadia east,
            He perceives
The slanting sun
    On moist powder,
        Her regalia
            Plays in the breeze.
Emotion comes
    Unconsciously,
        He dimly halts
            His braided steed.

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The other singleton is even more scandalous: some Romeo meets a pretty maid and she leads him straight to a love hotel.

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Jade Pavilion Songs (Demure and Coy)
Quan Deyu

Demure and coy,
    This loveliness,
        Just fifteen years,
The orchard south,
    Encountering
        As evening nears.
I ask her when
    We’ll meet again,
        She will not speak,
Just points for me,
    A lovers’ inn,
        Where flowers fall deep.

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Then there is a cycle of ten poems that trace a narrative of separation, sadness, and reunion.

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Jade Pavilion Songs (1)

Translucent sheen,
    Thin silken robe,
        And rounded wrists
            Of dainty jade.
We meet, we meet,
    I do not speak,
        Just smile beside
            Embroidered sheets.


Jade Pavilion Songs (2)
Quan Deyu

I heard you’ll fight
    Korean wars,
        It gives me fear,
            That eastern land.
Fear’s cracked my face,
    Left me ashamed,
        Your baby hopes
            You’ll understand.


Jade Pavilion Songs (3)

I stitch some drapes
    Inside my room,
        I played the lute
            But now that’s done.
Our time for trysts,
    But you are gone,
        And all day long
            My teardrops drum.


Jade Pavilion Songs (4)

An inlaid pillow,
    Wet with tears,
        Turtleshell bed,
            I numbly stare.
My robes of silk
    I can’t endure,
        Embroidered ducks,
            Devoted pair.


Jade Pavilion Songs (5)

Before the flowers
    You were gone,
        Did not return 
            When bright blooms shone.
Before my eaves
    Paired swallows fly,
        I miss my lord,
            Forlornly cry.


Jade Pavilion Songs (6)

This empty room,
    The candle out,
        The curtain pulled,
            Alone at night.
My tears drained,
    My innards twist, 
        He’s in my heart.
            But not in sight.



Jade Pavilion Songs (7)

The autumn wind
    Blew all night long,
        Your pretty flowers
            Blew away.
Oh, neighbour girls
    Made eyes at Song—
        Come home, my love,
            And don’t delay.


Jade Pavilion Songs (8)

I sit alone,
    Wrapped in a cloak,
        Deep in the night,
            Moon on cold dew.
Behind this drape,
    The pain cuts deep,
        I daren’t slip out
            To look for you.


Jade Pavilion Songs (9)

My sash-knot slipped
    Last night: good luck!
        And lucky long-legs
            Flew today.
I’ll not neglect
    To rouge my face,
        Good fortune means
            He’s on his way.


Jade Pavilion Songs (10)

The traveller’s come,
    A thousand miles,
        His wakeful wife,
            In her compound.
In the mirror,
    Her lamplit eyes
        Cannot hold still,
            Keep darting round.