Poetic China: At a Green Jade Table—A Song about the Lantern Festival

At a Green Jade Table—A Song about the Lantern Festival

Author: Xin Qiji (1140—1207)

An east wind brings up blossoms of fireworks above thousands of treetops.

And carries down showers of sparks that resemble raindrops.

Scented ornate carriages proceed fragrantly all the way before their stops.

Flute music vibrates; jade pots radiate.

All night long every lantern in the shape of fish or dragon hops.

A lady with snow-white skin and a willowy figure in a golden dress,

She passes by smiling, chuckling, with a subtle fragrance in her tress.

For hundreds of thousands of times I have looked for the one.

Now suddenly turning around, I see that special someone

Standing where lighting is less done.

Xin was a famous Chinese poet and master soldier whose ci (poems written to existing musical patterns) are considered by many critics to be the best of the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279).

This poem starts with the splendid and colorful scene of the Lantern Festival, contrasting the image of a lonely woman who is beyond the ordinary and is different from the rest. To some extent, the feature of the woman is similar to that of the poet who is lonely yet stoical after his political disappointment.