zǐ子yè夜wú吴gē歌·xià夏gē歌

The Midnight Songs of Wu are a set of four poems Li Bai wrote in the style of southern folk songs, one for each season. This one is about summer and borrows the legend of Xi Shi. Mirror Lake and the Ruoye Stream are both in today's Shaoxing, Zhejiang, once part of the state of Yue. Legend says Xi Shi was a beauty of Yue who washed silk by the Ruoye Stream and was later taken into the King of Yue's palace. The poet imagines her picking lotus on the lake in the fifth month. The year the set was written is not known.

《子夜吴歌》是李白仿照南方民歌写的一组诗，共四首，分别写春、夏、秋、冬。这首写夏天，借用了西施的传说。镜湖和若耶溪都在今天的浙江绍兴，那里古时属于越国。传说西施是越国的美女，曾在若耶溪边浣纱，后来进了越王的宫。诗人想象她五月在湖上采莲的样子。这组诗具体写于哪一年，已经不清楚了。

Li Bai (701 to 762) is one of the most famous Tang poets, called the Immortal of Poetry. He loved folk songs and often rewrote old song titles in his own way. The Midnight Songs of Wu began as folk songs of the Wu region in the south. Li Bai wrote one for each season: spring, summer, autumn and winter. The words are as plain as a folk song, but the feeling runs deep.

李白（701—762），唐代最有名的诗人之一，人称“诗仙”。他很喜欢学习民歌，把老的乐府诗题拿来重新写。《子夜吴歌》本来是南方吴地的民歌，李白按春、夏、秋、冬各写了一首，语言像民歌一样明白好懂，感情却很深。

This poem is like a lively summer painting. First comes a wide view: Mirror Lake, three hundred li across, covered in lotus flowers. Then the view moves closer: the lovely Xi Shi rows her little boat out to pick lotus. The poet never tells us how beautiful she is. Instead he says so many people come to look that the Ruoye Stream is jammed. The bigger the crowd, the more beautiful she must be. In the end she does not wait for the moon. She rows back to the King of Yue's palace, leaving the crowd on the bank still gazing. The lotus is lovely, and she is lovelier still. But she comes and goes so quickly that we are left amazed, and a little sorry to see her go.

这首诗像一幅热闹的夏日图画。先是一个大大的镜头：三百里的镜湖，开满了荷花。然后镜头拉近：美丽的西施划着小船来采莲。诗人没有直接写她有多美，而是写看她的人太多，把若耶溪都挤满了。人越多，越说明她美。最后她不等月亮出来，就划船回越王宫里去了，留下岸上的人还在张望。荷花美，人更美；可是来得匆匆，去得也匆匆，让人觉得又惊艳又有点不舍。