99. Sent to Reminder Du of the Left Secretariat

A poem by Cen Can, translated by Hyun Woo Kim

In parallel steps, we run up the crimson stairway;

The divided departments’ border is myrtle flowers.

At dawn, we follow the royal guards to enter;

In the evening, we lead the royal fragrance to return.

With white hair, we are saddened by the falling flowers;

With blue clouds, we envy the birds flying.

In the holy palace, there is nothing wrong!

On my own, I recognize that remonstrating appeals are rare.

「寄左省杜拾遺」

聯步趨丹陛

分曹限紫微

曉隨天仗入

暮惹御香歸

白髮悲花落

青雲羨鳥飛

聖朝無闕事

自覺諫書稀

From Hyun Woo:

We are reading a politically charged poem today. The “Reminder Du” in the title is Du Fu. He and Cen Can worked as officials in the palace but in different departments. The “Left Secretariat” is actually the Central Secretariat. It was called so because its building was on the left side of the palace.

Du Fu’s job title, which I translated as “reminder”, 拾遺, literally means ‘picking up lost items’. A reminder’s main job was to review royal documents, including decrees, in case the emperor or his secretaries made mistakes. In a sense, Du Fu’s job was to remind the emperor of what he had lost or forgotten in his words. Sometimes, his work would have been simple, checking the emperor’s grammar, for instance, but determining what counts as a ‘mistake’, or what the emperor forgot, could easily turn into a political matter.

The first four lines describe Cen Can and Du Fu’s ordinary day as bureaucrats. (Tang’s Central Secretariat office had many myrtle trees planted around it. Thus, when you read a pre-modern Chinese poem and see myrtle flowers mentioned, you may almost always conclude that the line is describing the palace.) They come to work at dawn and go back home in the evening, the “royal fragrance” still lingering with them.

Then, the poet notices the “falling flowers”. His hair is white now. He and Du Fu are getting old. They “envy the birds flying.” Are they not stuck in a rut? Is this what they expected when they first entered the palace?

The last two lines are rather grim. Obviously, Cen Can does not mean that “there is nothing wrong” in the palace. He means exactly the opposite. Still, “remonstrating appeals are rare.” No one will speak up to the emperor or the mandarins.

Could it have been Cen Can’s influence? Later, Du Fu lost his job for speaking up. He tried to point out the emperor’s ‘mistake’, which was not a mistake at all: the emperor ordered the execution of a general for losing to rebels. The emperor knew what he was doing.

If you enjoyed my work, you can buy me a cup of tea. I am not a coffee person, by the way.