Lang Tao Sha

Lang Tao Sha (Ripples Sifting Sand) is the name of a kind of tune of Song Ci, with a fixed format and tune, which determines the rhythm and tune of Song Ci, but has no relation to the content of the Song Ci. The title of this Song Ci is “The curtain cannot keep out the patter of rain” and this is also the first line of this Song Ci.

Li Yu was the third and the last ruler of the Southern Tang state during imperial China’s Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the country fell during his reign. Since his life experience, his words are vivid but profound. The Lang Tao Sha, in particular, was written while he was in captivity, and he died shortly afterwards. Here is the entire content of Lang Tao Sha, translation by Yuanchong Xu:

Tune: Ripples Sifting Sang The curtain cannot keep out the patter of rain, Springtime is on the wane, In the deep night my quilt is not coldproof. Forgetting I am under hospitable roof, In dreams I seek awhile for pleasure vain.

Do not lean alone on balustrades, And yearn for boundless land which fades. Easy to leave it but hard to see it again. With flowers fallen on the waves spring’s gone away, So has the paradise of yesterday.

The text I chose is the last two lines of this Song Ci, which expresses the author’s deep frustrated, sorrow and pain as well as his longing for the homeland. For Li Yu, it was his country that he hard to see again, the huge contrast between his status and life makes him feel that everything in the past is in a paradise, passing away with the flowers fallen on the waves.