清平乐
　　黄庭坚 (1045-1105)
　　春归何处，寂寞无行路。若有谁知春去处，唤取归来同住。
　　春无踪迹谁知，除非问取黄鹂。百啭无人能解，因风飞过蔷薇。
　　To the tune of Pure Serene Music
　　Poem by Huang Tingjian
　　Translation by yang zhiming
　
　　Where has the spring gone?
　　No way to be found.
　　If anyone really knows where,
　　Please call the spring back
　　 To stay with me here.
　　From whom could I get the clue?
　　Only the oriole may tell the true.
　　She tells a lot but all fail to understand,
　　Then she flies with wind over the rose land.
　　
　　Translator’s notes:
　　
1. 寂寞无行路(ji4mo4wu2xing2lu4) literarily no trace is left on the lonesome road. It is the response for the question raised in the first line. Since there is no hint as for where the spring goes how lonely I feel as if I have lost a friend!
　　2. 问取黄鹂(wen4qu3huang2li2) to ask the oriole about it. Why is that? It is known that an oriole chirps after the spring leaves and before the summer arrives so she must know where the spring is.
　　
　　Commentary:
　　
　　This is a lyric about love of the spring. In the first stanza the poet seems to tell a story about finding a lost friend. As the spring silently goes away the persona is feeling so sorry for he cannot find her any more as if he has lost his girl friend. So it is only natural that he suffers some kind of loneliness and sadness on the way to trace her, thus showing that how deeply he cares for her and how pathetic he feels when discovery of her becomes out of the question!
　　However in his heart it is not so hopeless yet. He tries to request: “Please call her back and live together with me whoever knows where she is.”
　　
　　In the second stanza the poet has another thought that even though the persona is aware of the fact she is gone already still in the innermost of his mind he anticipates a glimmer of hope that the oriole may help him make out her whereabouts. And the oriole does say to him something but the persona can’t figure it out. As an oriole being not understood she has no way but flies away over the roses in front of the persona. And once roses in blossom it suggests that the summer is come. Only then does the persona realize the fact that the spring or his friend rather really disappears.
　　
　　A reader, while reading this piece of artistic work, may hit upon a picture in the back of his mind; on an early summer day a man standing at a crossing looks around and around so as to find his lost friend. Finally he discovers his friend “the spring” is no longer there for what he sees is that the roses are booming and what he hears is that the oriole is singing. And I believe this is the imagery of this lyric, through which the theme is brought out: when the spring is with us we must waste no time and cherish it as ardently as we can so that we shall not be sorry while it is away from us. And what is more, in natural world the spring always returns but for human beings once the prime of youth fades away it never comes back again. In this sense the poet is expressing his love for life itself rather than the spring. We should treasure life and enjoy it while alive for our existence in this world is short as Sushi sighs in his poem: “Life is like a spring dream that vanishes without a trace.”
Yang Zhiming 02-18-2005
　　
　　
　　About the Poet
　　　　Huang Tingjian (1045-1105)-was a native of Fenning, Hongzhou Prefecture, and now Xiushui, Jiangxi Province. His literary name is Luzhi (lit. plain and straight) and style name Shanggu Daoren( a Taoist in a valley).In 1067 he passed examination for the degree of Jinshi. He once served in imperial academy as a professor. Later he was promoted to a position of an officer in charge of bibliography of national history. In his political career he was banished several times till his death in Yizhou.
　　　　 In his early days as a poet he was famous for love poems. As he was getting old he was fond of composing poems of bold and uninhibited style. Apart from his success in poetry he was also a well-known calligrapher, one of the four celebrated calligraphers of Song Dynasty (the other three: Sushi, Mifu, Caixiang).