āęę°“čÆē»å±± å±±é«ę¹åé ēøęę ęå¤ ēøęē»å¹“ę ééå±±ęØč£ ē»µē»µéč±å å«åę éę ēøé¢äøę¶čÆ“ I gaze down at the lake as I try to climb this mountain And the mountain seems as high as the lake is wide. I miss you in a night that never ends. I think of you through every day I live. So fragrant these blossoms on the mountain trees And the fields of wildflowers go on and on. After we parted, I was overwhelmed. So now I persuade myself that soon weāll meet again.ā
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Sending Red Blossoms ( åÆę±ę¾) by Li Ye ( ęå¶). Tang Dynasty.
Li Ye, courtesy name, Li Jilan (ęå£č), was a Tang dynasty poet, courtesan, entertainer and Taoist nun. She was known for her poetic talent as well as her beauty and grace. She was born in Wuxing (Huzhou), Zhejiang Province. She enjoyed writing poetry as a child and her father described her as āexceptionally clever.ā Talented in poetry, music and calligraphy, she was well known in literary circles and was associated with famous poets. Much to her fatherās predictions, she had a reputation for being an āunchasteā woman. In late-Tang, rebel leader Zhu Ci forced Li to write anti-Tang poetry. She was then condemned to death by Emperor Dezong in 784 after being accused of treason. She is one of the few Tang dynasty female poets whose poetry survived. The Complete Collection of Tang Dynasty Poetry from the Qing Dynasty preserves 18 of her poems.
Sending Red Blossoms was written in the dawn, describing her lonely climb up the mountain. Through fragrant wildflowers and blossoming trees, she bitterly waits for her lover. While the meaning of the poem is ambiguous, some suspect that it may be about yearning for her late husband.
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