University of Virginia Library

七言律詩 李商隱 隋宮

紫泉宮殿鎖煙霞, 欲取蕪城作帝家。
玉璽不緣歸日角, 錦帆應是到天涯。
於今腐草無螢火, 終古垂楊有暮鴉。
地下若逢陳後主, 豈宜重問後庭花?

Seven-character-regular-verse
Li Shangyin THE PALACE OF THE SUI EMPEROR

His Palace of Purple Spring has been taken by mist and cloud,
As he would have taken all Yangzhou to be his private domain
But for the seal of imperial jade being seized by the first Tang Emperor,
He would have bounded with his silken sails the limits of the world.
Fire-flies are gone now, have left the weathered grasses,
But still among the weeping-willows crows perch at twilight.
...If he meets, there underground, the Later Chen Emperor,
Do you think that they will mention a Song of Courtyard Flowers?