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。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。鱼玄机其诗作现存五十首，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. 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. There are currently fifty poems by Yu Xuanji, which 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 “Sending to the Flying Minister” is a five character regulated poem created by the Tang Dynasty female poet Renyu Xuanji. It mainly expresses deep longing for Wen Tingyun through the description of the autumn courtyard scenery.
鱼玄机·《寄飞卿》
阶砌乱蛩鸣，庭柯烟露清。
月中邻乐响，楼上远山明。
珍簟凉风著，瑶琴寄恨生。
嵇君懒书札，底物慰秋情。
To a Friend
Yu Xuanji
Crickets are chirping
by the stepping stones;
mist and dew are clearing
in the garden boughs.
Music in the moonlight
makes a nearby echo;
seen from the upper chamber,
the distant hills are aglow.
A cold wind clings
to my bamboo mat,
the sorrow of my life
comes through my lute.
You’re so late, my friend,
in writing;
what can soothe
this autumn longing?
（Jennifer Carpenter 译）
Sent to Feiqing
Yu Xuanji
On the stone steps crickets chirp, unsettled;
Misty dew is pure on the boughs in the courtyard.
In the moonlight, echoes of nearby music
From an upper story, glow of distant mountains.
The fine mat is touched by a cold wind,
My pains lodged in notes from a jade zither.
Master Ji is too lazy to write letters,（1）
So what can console my autumn feelings?
（1）. Master Ji is Ji Kang, the third-century poet, member of the “Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove” coterie.
（Bannie Chow, Thomas Cleary 译）
