FENG YANSI (903-960)

Feng Yansi came from Guangling (what is today Yangzhou in Jiangsu Province). He served the two Emperor Li's, the last two emperors of the Tang Dynasty. He was Prime Minister and was considered to rival Wen Tingyuan and Wei Chuang as the best writers of lyric form (ci) poetry of their day. Over one hundred of his lyric poems survive.
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To the Tune of "Pilgrimage to Golden Gate"


Sudden wind arises
blowing wrinkles on a pool of spring water.
Mandarin ducks follow her wandering down the flower path.
She crushes red apricot petals between her fingers.

Ducks fight below the banister where she leans alone,
her jade hairpin poised to fall.
All day long she longs for her man. He doesn't come.
Yet she raises her head, happy to hear a magpie sing.

        ---Translated by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping


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Notes: Emperor Li Jing once teased Feng Yansi about the famous second line of this poem, saying, "wrinkles blowing on a pool of spring water, why should you make that your business?" Feng Yansi replied, "Your majesty, my line is certainly not as powerful as yours," and recited Li Jing's line, "A jade reed pipe pierces the small tower with cold," implying, of course, "and what business is a jade reed pipe of yours?" Both lines of poetry use the character cui, which means "to blow."

Line 8, there is a Chinese folk belief that when you hear a magpie sing, it means that someone is on their way home.
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To the Tune of "Magpie Perched on a Twig"

Who says that feelings are long dead?
Every spring
the sorrow remains the same.
Each day I am winesick by the flowers,
getting thinner in the mirror.

A riverbank of green weeds and willow trees.
I ask this new sorrow,
"Why do you come back every year?"

I stand alone on a small bridge and wind fills up my sleeves.
New moon and a small wood empty of men.

        ---Translated by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping