Nalan Ci Annotations

Author: (Qing) Nalan Xingde
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-04-01
Features: When it comes to Nalan's poetry, what people think of first is his love poems. Indeed, love poems can be said to be the most distinctive and representative works of Nalan's personality. These works not only occupy more than one-third of Nalan's poetry but are also the essence of his entire oeuvre, the result of the poet pouring out his heart and tears, and casting them in ink. As predecessors said, "sorrowful yet beautiful" () can be used as a general assessment of his love poems, and it is quite appropriate. Love is an indispensable part of human life, and it is also an eternal theme in literary and artistic works, a fact universally acknowledged and needing no further elaboration. However, love manifests itself in countless different ways for each individual—,, and so on. How was Nalan Xingde's love life and his love poems? Mr. Huang Tianji described and summarized them as "rosy and gray." Indeed, Xingde's love life and his love poems were exactly like that—more disappointment than joy, more tears than happiness, sorrowful and melancholic, with more grievances and bitterness. Although we can also see a few poems that depict love's joy, such as "Xianxi Sha" (Eighteen years in this world), which portrays the beauty and charm of his wife Lu Shi and expresses the poet's boundless tenderness and admiration for her; "Xianxi Sha" (Quickly brush the light face to write the goddess of Luo), "Yan'er Mei" (Seeing the starry sky again in the blue sea again), which describe the joy of reunion after separation from his beloved wife, and so on, such works are indeed scarce. On the other hand, his works that express love's pain, depict sorrow and tears are everywhere to be seen. Among them, the ones that most move the soul and stir emotions are his poems mourning the deceased.