Wuyixiang in May, 2008

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Black Gown Lane

Liu Yuxi 772 Beside Vermilian Bird Bridge         wild weeds bloom, By entrance of Black Gown Lane         slanting evening sun. In old times         swallows nested                  in the mansions                          of Wang and Xie, Now they perch         in the in the homes                 of humbler folk.

Wūyī Xiàng

Liú Yǔxī 772-842 Zhūquè Qiáo biān yěcài huā, Wūyī Xiàng kǒu Xīyáng xié. Jiùshí Wáng Xiè dāng qián yàn, Fēi rù xúnchángbǎixìng jiā.

Translator:

Dongbo 東波

Notes: This poem is a lament of the shifting fortunes of families and dynasties. Liu Yuxi visited Black Gown Lane in Nanjing (then named Jinling) in the Tang Dynasty. During the Six Dynasties the street was lined with the impressive and rich homes of the Wang and Xie families. When Liu arrived the bridge was covered with weeds, the graceful mansions of the rich gone, and in their place rough shacks of common folks. The swallows which had become used to the sheltering eves of fine mansions, now had to do with the leaky eves of shanties. Now today, on May 1, 2008, only the name of this short lane remains. Although only a five minute walk from the Kongzi Miao and the Qinhai river, a major tourist site, there are no tourists here. Only a few drab streetside diners and a squalid apartment block or two. The poem floats unwelcome in the smoggy air.

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