江城子
乙卯正月二十日夜记梦
[宋]苏轼
十年[1]生死两茫茫,
不思量,
自难忘。
千里孤坟,
无处话凄凉。
纵使相逢应不识,
尘满面,
鬓如霜。
夜来幽梦忽还乡,
小轩窗,
正梳妆。
相顾无言,
唯有泪千行。
料得年年肠断处,
明月夜,
短松冈[2]。
[1]十年:指结发妻子王弗去世已十年。
[2]短松冈:苏轼葬妻之地。
Tune: A Riverside Town
Dreaming of My Deceased Wife on the Night of the 20th Day of the 1st Month
Su Shi
For ten long years the living of the dead knows nought.
Though to my mind not brought,
Could the dead be forgot?
Her lonely grave is far, a thousand miles away.
To whom can I my grief convey?
Revived, e’en if she be, could she know me?
My face is worn with care
And frosted is my hair.
Last night I dreamed of coming to my native place:
She’s making up her face
Before her mirror with grace.
Each saw the other hushed,
But from our eyes tears gushed.
When I am woken, I fancy her heart broken
Each night when the moon shines
O’er her grave clad with pines.
This lyric was written at Mizhou in 1075. The poet dreamed of his first wife, Wang Fu, whom he married in 1054 when she was fifteen. She died in 1065, and the following year, when the poet’s father died, he carried her remains back to his old home in Sichuan and buried them in the family plot, planting a number of little pines around the grave mound.