鱼玄机，女，晚唐诗人，长安（今陕西西安）人。初名鱼幼微，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). The original name is Yu Youwei, with the courtesy name 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”.
Yu Xuanji’s “Folding Willow Trees” is a heartfelt and sentimental farewell poem, expressing the poet’s deep sorrow and helplessness towards parting through the depiction of farewell scenes.
鱼玄机·《折杨柳》
朝朝送别泣花钿，折尽春风杨柳烟。
愿得西山无树木，免教人作泪悬悬。
Saying Goodbye
Yu Xuanji
Seeing you off day after day,
my tears roll down like florets;
I’ve used up all my farewells
in the misty haze
as the willows sway
in the spring breeze.
I wish I’d find a paradise
where people never part,
so they will never have to cry
these tears that drain the heart.
（Bannie Chow, Thomas Cleary 译）
