Tang Dynasty
无题
李商隐
相见时难别亦难，
东风无力百花残。
春蚕到死丝方尽，
蜡炬成灰泪始干。
晓镜但愁云鬓改，
夜吟应觉月光寒。
蓬山此去无多路，
青鸟殷勤为探看。
Translation
Meeting is hard, and parting is harder still; the east wind has lost its strength, and all the flowers fade. The spring silkworm spins its thread until death; the candle’s tears dry only when it has burned to ash. At dawn before the mirror, one fears the cloudlike hair may have changed; at night, reciting alone, one must feel the chill of moonlight. Mount Penglai is not so far from here— may the blue bird kindly go and seek news for me.
Analysis
Li Shangyin’s “Untitled” is one of the most celebrated love poems in Chinese literature. It does not narrate a clear story; instead, it builds an emotional world through symbolic images. The repeated word “hard” in the opening line marks both external separation and inner pain. The fading flowers and powerless east wind turn the late-spring landscape into an image of emotional exhaustion. The central couplet is famous for its intensity: the silkworm spins until death, and the candle’s tears dry only when it is reduced to ash. Through the pun between “silk” and “longing” in Chinese, devotion becomes both thread and thought. The poem then imagines the beloved: before the morning mirror, fearing the change of hair; at night, feeling the cold moonlight. The final allusion to Mount Penglai and the blue bird gives the poem a mythic distance. The beloved seems near in imagination yet unreachable in reality. The poem’s beauty lies in this suspended space between hope and impossibility.
About the Author
Li Shangyin was one of the major poets of the late Tang dynasty. His courtesy name was Yishan, and he is often paired with Du Mu as one of the “Little Li-Du.” He is especially admired for his regulated verse and his “Untitled” poems. His poetry is ornate, allusive, and emotionally subtle, often blending love, political frustration, and personal sorrow into dense symbolic language. “Untitled: Meeting Is Hard, Parting Is Harder” is among his most widely known works.