鱼玄机，女，晚唐诗人，长安（今陕西西安）人。初名鱼幼薇，字蕙兰。咸通（唐懿宗年号，860—874）中为补阙李亿妾，以李妻不能容，进长安咸宜观出家为女道士。与文学家温庭筠为忘年交，唱和甚多。后被京兆尹温璋以打死婢女之罪名处死。鱼玄机性聪慧，有才思，好读书，尤工诗。与李冶、薛涛、刘采春并称唐代四大女诗人。其诗作现存五十首，收于《全唐诗》。有《鱼玄机集》一卷。其事迹见《唐才子传》等书。
Yu Xuanji, female, was a poet of the late Tang Dynasty, born in Chang’an (now Xi’an, Shaanxi). My original name is Yu Youwei, and my courtesy name is Huilan. In Xiantong (Tang Yizong era name, 860-874), Li Yifei was appointed as a concubine to fill the vacancy. As Li’s wife could not tolerate her, she entered Xianyi Temple in Chang’an and became a female Taoist priest. As a lifelong friend of the literary figure Wen Tingyun, he sang many songs together. Later, he was executed by the Jingzhao Yin Wen Zhang on charges of killing a maid. Yu Xuanji is intelligent, talented, good at reading, and particularly skilled in poetry. She is known as one of the four great female poets of the Tang Dynasty, along with Li Ye, Xue Tao, and Liu Caichun. Fifty of his poems still exist and are included in the ‘Complete Tang Poems’. There is a volume called ‘Fish Mysteries Collection’. His deeds can be found in books such as “Biography of Tang Talented Scholars”.
The poem “The Hidden Mist Pavilion” is a seven character quatrain created by Tang Dynasty female poet Renyu Xuanji, depicting her reclusive life. The poem expresses the poet’s beautiful state of mind of transcending the world and enjoying nature.
鱼玄机·《题隐雾亭》
春花秋月入诗篇，白日清宵是散仙。
空卷珠帘不曾下，长移一榻对山眠。
A Mist Enshrouded Inn
Yu Xuanji
The spring flowers and autumn moon
make their way into poetry;
the bright days and clear nights
are themselves free immortals.
No need to roll up the beaded blind,
for it has never been lowered,
a single cot’s been moved for good
to sleep in view of the mountains.
（Bannie Chow, Thomas Cleary 译）
Inscribed on Mist-Hidden Pavilion
Yu Xuanji
Spring flowers and autumn moon enter my poems,
Bright daylight, clear night these belong to an immortal at ease.
I do nothing but roll up my beaded blinds and never lower them,
I’ve moved my couch for good so that I can sleep facing the mountains.
（Jennifer Carpenter 译）
