Book 1 Chapter 9

Chapter 9 of Book 1

Origin of the Chapter's Title
The title 眉间心上，无计相回避 (méi jiān xīn shàng ， wú jì xiàng huí bì) is from the poem  Yu Jie Xing (御街行), also known as Lyrics to the Imperial Drive Melody, by Fan Zhongyan (范仲淹), a scholar-reformer from the Song Dynasty.

The poem describes "the poet's grief upon an unjust or acrimonious separation (the particular circumstances of it are not entirely clear)."

Tong Hua uses Song poems to describe separation and longing; for example in Book 1 Chapter 14 and Book 1 Chapter 15, which foreshadows the Chinese subtitle of Book 2.

眉间心上，无计相回避 can be translated as:


 * The furrowing of my brow

I know that I have no way of escaping it.


 * It weighs on my mind and brows,

Yet there is nothing I can do to fend it.


 * Brow furrowed, No choice but mutal avoidance.

The context of this line in its passage:

"My heart has been broken, and I have no way of drowning my sorrows; before the wine has reached my lips it turns to bitter tears. The broken lamp winks out light, and I recline crooked on the pillow. I know too well what it is like to sleep alone. This manifests itself in the contortions of my heart, and the furrowing of my brow; I know that I have no way of escaping it."

Another translation of this passage:

Already rent is my heart, I cannot be more intoxicated, 

''Before I could further drink up, I've already shed more tears. ''

Lying askew on a pillow by the gleam of a dimming lamp, 

''How familiar I am with what it's like to sleep and dwell in loneliness. ''

So often reminded of this I am, it weighs on my mind and brows, 

Yet there is nothing I can do to fend it.