A song of the palace | Three Commentaries: A Song at the Palace | Now that the palace-gate has softly closed on its flowers

by Zhu Qingyu (flourished 9^th century)

Translation by Harold Witter Bynner (1881 - 1968)

宮詞

Language: Chinese (中文)

寂寂花時閉院門，
美人相並立瓊軒。
含情欲說宮中事，
鸚鵡前頭不敢言。

Text Authorship:

by Zhu Qingyu (flourished 9^th century), "宮詞" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

[ None yet in the database ]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in English, a translation by Witter Bynner (1881 - 1968) , "A song of the palace", appears in The Jade Mountain, first published 1929 ; composed by Kenneth Hesketh.
Also set in Swedish (Svenska), a translation by Erik Blomberg (1894 - 1965) , appears in Jadeberget, kinesisk lyrik från Tangdynastin 618-906 , first published 1944, copyright © ; composed by Hilding Rosenberg.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-07-28
Line count: 4
Word count: 4

Now that the palace‑gate has softly...

Language: English after the Chinese (中文)

Now that the palace-gate has softly closed on its flowers,
Ladies file out to their pavilion of jade,
Abrim to the lips with imperial gossip
But not daring to breathe it with a parrot among them.

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Text Authorship:

by Harold Witter Bynner (1881 - 1968), "A song of the palace", appears in The Jade Mountain, first published 1929 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

a text in Chinese (中文) by Zhu Qingyu (flourished 9^th century), "宮詞"
- Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Kenneth Hesketh (b. 1968), "Three Commentaries: A Song at the Palace", first performed 2007 [ voice and piano ], from Shimmerwords and Idle Songs, no. 3a, confirmed with a concert programme booklet [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-07-28
Line count: 4
Word count: 36