Page:The works of Li Po - Obata.djvu/90

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��36. SORROW OF THE LONG GATE PALACE— I

��The Northern Dipper has turned round in the sky, iJ *t And now hangs over the west tower. 4 In the Golden House there are none v.. Save the fireflies sailing the gloom, I ^ While the moonlight falls

Into the Palace of Long Gate, — And deepens still more the sorrow of one in the secret bower.

��Lady Chen who was queen to Wu-ti, a Han emperor, lost his favor and was left in the solitude of the Long Palace Gate to pine alone. Later at the imperial harem of China, the "Sorrow of the Long Gate'* became a stock-phrase and served as a title for love poems of grief under similar circumstances.

The Northern Dipper, i. e. Ursa Major.

The Golden House always refers to a palace for the fair sea;.

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