元稹の豔詩及び悼亡詩について

Abstract

Included in the works of the Middle T'ang poet Yuan Chen are the "Love Poems" 豔詩 and "Lamentations for a Dead wife" 悼亡 which are based upon the poet's own experiences. Both groups of poems deal with particular moments within the general uncertainness of life. In one of his poems Yüan Chen speaks of romantic love as a "dream" and marriage as an "awakening", and when we compare the "Love Poems" and "Lamentations", we see that they are based upon this interpretation of life. The "Love Poems", which tell of an unhappy love affair of the poet's youth, are wrapped in a veil of beautiful language. But this veiled unhappiness the poet does not regard as a central fact of human life, nor does he abandon himself to his passions and mourn over his unhappiness. At the age of thirty-one, the poet lost his wife, and his sorrow at this event is crystallized in the thirty odd poems entitled "Lamentations for a Dead Wife". These poems deal with the fundamental tragedy of life: through the experience of death, the poet's eyes are for the first time opened to the tragic nature of human existence, and he pours out his sorrow without restraint.