zèng赠nèi内rén人

Nèi rén was a Tang name for women who sang and danced in the palace. Under Emperor Xuanzong, there was a special place in the palace for training performers, and the women chosen for the Yichun Court were called nèi rén. Once they entered the palace, most never left. They could not marry and could not see their families. Zhang Hu wrote many poems about palace life, full of pity for these lonely women. We no longer know in which year this poem was written.

“内人”是唐代对宫中歌舞女子的叫法。唐玄宗时，宫里有专门学歌舞的地方，选进宜春院的女子就叫“内人”。她们一进宫，多半一辈子出不来，不能嫁人，也见不到家人。张祜写过不少宫词，同情宫里女子的孤单。这首诗具体写于哪一年，已经不清楚。

Zhang Hu was a Tang poet who lived roughly in the early ninth century. He never held office and spent his life wandering. He liked to write about life inside the palace. His best-known palace poem says, "Home is three thousand li away; twenty years deep in the palace," also about the sorrow of palace women. This poem, too, shows a palace woman's heart through a small act.

张祜，唐代诗人，大约生活在九世纪前期。他一辈子没有做过官，到处漫游，喜欢写宫里的事。他最有名的宫词是“故国三千里，深宫二十年”，说的也是宫女的苦。这首诗同样从小事里写出宫女的心。

The poem never says the word "sad". It shows only two small acts. It is late at night. Moonlight moves through the palace trees, but she is still awake, watching the birds' nest. The birds can sleep together in pairs, while she must stay alone in the empty palace. Then she sees a moth fly into the lamp flame, and she pulls out her jade hairpin to save it. The moth flew into the fire by itself, just as she was shut inside the palace with no way out. Saving the moth seems like pitying herself. One look and one rescue show both her loneliness and her kindness. The poem is very quiet, yet it leaves an ache in the heart.

这首诗没有一个“愁”字，只写了两个小动作。夜深了，月光在宫树间移动，她却还没睡，一直看着树上的鸟窝。鸟儿能成双成对地睡在一起，她却只能一个人守着空空的宫殿。接着，她看见一只飞蛾扑进灯火，就拔下玉钗把它救出来。飞蛾自己飞进火里，就像她自己被关进深宫，出不去。她救飞蛾，好像也是在可怜自己。一个看，一个救，把孤单和善良都写出来了，读起来很安静，却让人心里发酸。