李義山の無題詩

Abstract

In the writer's opinion the so-called "Untitled Poems" (wu-t'ishih 無題詩) of Li Shang-yin 李商隱 (813-858) are all concerned with romantic love. But although the poems seem superficially to relate the various cares and woes of romantic love, it is extremely difficult to grasp the poet's true meaning. Indeed even the surface meaning of the poems is ambiguous and any attempt to arrive at a positive interpretation of them line by line presents great difficulty. Some scholars have maintained that all of the "Untitled Poems" are related to political events of the period and would interpret them as political satires. I have not followed this theory, but have instead attempted to interpret the poems solely on the basis of the events actually related therein. From what we find in the poems it may be surmised that Li's companion in love was either a young girl, a daughter of the aristocracy, or a singing girl or prostitute. It appears that he had known her from his youth, that they had exchanged letters and secret promises, but that someone had come between them and the girl had later married someone else. I have given an interpretation of the fifteen "Untitled Poems", along with fourteen other poems which seem to deal with the same subject, ending with the famous "Brocade Harp" (Chin-se 錦瑟). This last poem has been the subject of much controversy among commentators from the Sung period on. In my opinion it is concerned with Li's reminiscences of a young girl of the aristocracy. I cannot agree with the number of scholars who regard it as a lamentation on the death of Li's own wife.