#偶得佳句共剪窗

(I first encountered this poem in a historical drama, and I went to look for it online, but apparently no one knew the name of this poet. It’s speculated that the poem was by someone online ten to fifteen years ago. If anyone knows the person who wrote this beautiful poem, please let me know and I will credit accordingly.)

Untitled

By unknown poet

Clear moon and light frost on a springtide night,

Fragrance of withering flowers drifting miles away.

If perchance I could meet a soulmate on this mortal plane,

Great pleasure it would be, to mingle at night by candle light (1) (2).

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Notes:

1. The phrase “共剪窗”, here translated as “mingle at night by the candle light”, probably refers a line in the Tang-era poem 《夜雨寄北》 by Li Shangyin (李商隱): “何當共剪西窗燭，却話巴山夜雨时”. The phrase “共剪西窗燭” literally means “trimming candle wick together (at night)”, implying staying up all night to hang out with someone.  Since Li Shangyin’s poem was written for his wife, the phrase had a romantic connotation.  This is why I chose the word “mingle”, since it also has a romantic connotation in modern usage, although maybe more physically intimate than the scene described here.
2. Due to aesthetic considerations and my interpretation of this poem, I decided to leave out the “偶得佳句” part of the last line.  Together, the last line means “when (I) come up with a nice line of poetry, it would be great to discuss it all night long”.  Thing is, that last line was just too information-dense to translate fully and not have it take up two lines.  I decided to focus on the “social gathering” aspect of this line, since the previous line did mention a “soulmate” (neither “知己” nor “soulmate” are necessarily romantic, but both can be seen as romantic), and the first two lines were about spring scenery (spring is usually associated with love, romance, etc.).

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Original Text (Simplified Chinese):

《无题》

(作者不详)

明月春宵三分霜，暗花残影十里香。

未若红尘逢知己，偶得佳句共剪窗(1) (2)。