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Guò Huá Qīng GōngPassing Huaqing Palace 过华清宫
Du Mu's satire on lychees rushed to Yang Guifei.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
长安回望绣成堆
cháng ān huí wàng xiù chéng duī
山顶千门次第开
shān dǐng qiān mén cì dì kāi
一骑红尘妃子笑
yī jì hóng chén fēi zǐ xiào
无人知是荔枝来
wú rén zhī shì lì zhī lái
Simplified characters; traditional title: 過華清宮.
English translation
Looking back on Chang'an, hills heaped like brocade;
On the summit a thousand gates open one by one.
One horseman through red dust—and the Consort smiles;
No one knows it is lychees that have come.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
The opening is splendid: the palace on Mount Li like a pile of embroidery, gates opening in sequence. Then a single rider in a cloud of dust — everyone assumes urgent military news — and the consort smiles, because only she knows it is fruit. The contrast between imperial effort and a trivial pleasure is a sharp criticism of the extravagance that led to the An Lushan Rebellion.
Background
The first of three quatrains Du Mu wrote at Huaqing Palace, the hot-spring retreat at Mount Li where Emperor Xuanzong spent winters with Yang Guifei. Lychees were rushed by relay horses from the far south to please her.
Key words
- 绣成堆 xiù chéng duī
- piled up like embroidery
- 一骑 yī jì
- a single horseman
- 妃子 fēi zǐ
- the imperial consort (Yang Guifei)
- 荔枝 lì zhī
- lychee
About the poet: Du Mu
Du Mu, grandson of a chief minister, was an official and a stylish writer of quatrains. With Li Shangyin he is known as one of the "Little Li and Du" of the late Tang, prized for vivid scenes tinged with history and melancholy.
Lifetime: 803–852. Other famous works: Written at the Wujiang Pavilion (题乌江亭); Passing Huaqing Palace (过华清宫); Qingming (清明); Spring in Jiangnan (江南春); Mooring on the Qinhuai River (泊秦淮); Mountain Walk (山行).
More by Du Mu
- Mountain Walk山行
- Qingming清明
- Spring in Jiangnan江南春
- Mooring on the Qinhuai River泊秦淮
- Written at the Wujiang Pavilion题乌江亭