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”.
鱼玄机·《寄国香》
旦夕醉吟身，相思又此春。
雨中寄书使，窗下断肠人。
山卷珠帘看，愁随芳草新。
别来清宴上，几度落梁尘。
To a Singer
Yu Xuanji
Drunken she bemoans her fate
from morning until night;
longing for another,
whom can she tell of her plight?
A letter comes in the rain,
a heart breaks by the window.
Gazing into the mountains
as she rolls up the blind,
along with the fragrant grasses
sadness comes to mind.
How many times
since we’ve been apart
have your clear songs
filled the air?
（Bannie Chow, Thomas Cleary 译）
