Yuan Dynasty
蟾宫曲 · 商女
卢挚
水笼烟明月笼沙，
淅沥秋风，
哽咽鸣笳。
闷倚篷窗，
动江天两岸芦花。
飞鹜鸟青山落霞，
宿鸳鸯锦浪淘沙。
一曲琵琶，
泪湿青衫，
恨满天涯！
Translation
The water shrouds the mist; the bright moon shrouds the sand. Autumn wind falls in thin, dripping sounds; the reed-pipe cries as if choking with grief. In sorrow I lean against the boat's awning window; under the vast river sky, reed flowers stir along both banks. Wild ducks fly past green hills and falling sunset clouds; paired mandarin ducks sleep amid brocade-like waves that wash the sand. One song of the pipa — tears soak the blue robe, and grief fills the far ends of the world.
Analysis
Moon Palace Tune · The Singing Girl is a dense and allusive autumn river song. It brings together the atmosphere of Du Mu's Qinhuai River, Wang Bo's sunset and wild duck imagery, and Bai Juyi's pipa sorrow, then reshapes them into a Yuan sanqu scene of travel, music, and grief. The opening line clearly transforms Du Mu's "mist shrouds cold water, moon shrouds sand" from "Mooring on the Qinhuai." In Du Mu's poem, the singing girl and the night scene carry historical sadness. Lu Zhi's variation makes water, mist, moon, and sand wrap around one another, creating a more blurred and haunted river night. The "dripping autumn wind" and "choking reed-pipe" add sound. The wind is cold and thin; the reed-pipe has the tone of lament. The landscape is not silent. It seems to mourn. The speaker leans gloomily by the boat window. This detail makes the song a traveler's scene rather than a detached landscape. The emotion belongs to someone on the water, away from home, enclosed in a boat yet facing a vast river sky. The lines on wild ducks, green hills, sunset clouds, mandarin ducks, and brocade-like waves build a beautiful but melancholy picture. The echo of Wang Bo's "falling clouds and lone wild duck" gives the image classical depth. The final allusion to the pipa and the tear-soaked blue robe invokes Bai Juyi's "Song of the Pipa." It immediately recalls exile, shared sorrow, and the feeling of being "fallen people at the ends of the earth." The last phrase, "grief fills the far ends of the world," gathers all these associations into one emotion. The grief here is not merely romantic. It includes the sorrow of the singing girl, the sadness of music, the loneliness of travel, and the inherited memory of historical decline.
About the Author
Lu Zhi, courtesy name Chudao, also known as Xinlao, and literary name Shuzhai, was a Yuan dynasty writer and sanqu poet from Zhuojun. He served in high literary office, including as Hanlin Academician-in-Chief, and was one of the important literati of the early Yuan. He was associated with figures such as Bai Pu, Ma Zhiyuan, and Zhu Lianxiu. His sanqu are numerous and cover landscape, historical reflection, object poems, reclusion, lamentation, and farewell. His style is clear, elegant, and open, combining literati refinement with the natural movement of Yuan song.