The following Tune of “affection and sorrow” was written by the Song dynasty poet Yan Jidao:
阮郎归
晏几道
旧香残粉似当初，人情恨不如。一春犹有数行书，秋来书更疏。
衾凤冷，枕鸳孤，愁肠待酒舒。梦魂纵有也成虚，哪堪和梦无。
Tune: Ruan Lang Gui, affection and sorrow
By Yan Jidao
My fragrance the same
as we first met
Not so your love
fading since the day you left
You write
few lines in spring
fewer words in fall.
Phoenix blanket cold
Pair pillows gone
And I alone with my sorrow and whiskey
keep hoping to find you in a vision
or a dream
though I dream less
these sleepless nights.
-- translated by Qihui Gong and David Lehman
Yan Jidao's dates are c. 1038-1110 (very approximate).
Professor Hsu Ping of San Jose University helped with these translations.
"Ruan Lang Gui" literally means "return of the lover" (or in Eileen's inspired rendering "back of the lover"). But she she wriotes, "the content of the tune doesn't necessarily correspond to the exact meaning of the title," and we have opted for "Affection and Sorrow" rather than "The Return of the Lover" in translating "Ruan Lang Gui" into English.
-- DL
