夫人阁端午帖子
原作：李清照
英译：闵晓红
三宫催解粽，
妆罢未天明。
便面天题字，
歌头御赐名。
The three majesties invite all for Zongzi feast
- A scroll for the Empress’s chamber hall to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival
written by: : Li Qingzhao
translated by： Julia Min
The three majesties invite all for Zongzi feast,
untying the rainbow strings on bamboo leaves.
Your silk fan bears calligraphy signed by Him.
New tune is born when He named your ci song.
Appreciation:
This is a poem for the red scroll sent as a season’s greeting to a consort in the Royal Palace before Dragon Boat Festival (in Chinese”端午节”, May 5 in lunar calendar) . Yi’an imagined a moment picture of the Royal family’s festive feast when the special food Zongzi was served. Zongzi is usually made with sticky rice wrapped with bamboo leaves in triangular shape and tied with colourful strings. Inside the sticky rice you’d often fine meat/red beans/salted egg yolk in the middle. The festival was in memory of the great gentry poet Qu Yuan (屈原) who ended his life in Liluo River. It’s said the Chu people loved him dearly they got on boats and dumped many Zongzi into the river to stop the fish taking Qu’s body.
Here the subject matter focus on praising the consort whose taste and talent in writing is very much favoured by the Emperor.
Reference:
1. baike.baidu.com (百度百科)
2. zh.wikipedia.org (维基百科）
3. 《李清照集笺注》李清照撰，徐培均笺注； 2002年上海古籍出版社
4. 《李清照文集》 作者：（北宋）李清照著，刘振鹏https://books.google.com.au/
5. All pictures are selected from google search.