Candle tears?

[Lu]

A quick (I hope) question: Sanmao writes:

 

夜来了，我点上白蜡烛，看它的眼泪淌成什么形象。

 

I understand this sentence, but my question: am I correct in assuming that she is using 眼泪 as a poetic description of the dripping candle wax (and metaphor of her own feelings), or is that simply the regular word for it? Her circumstances in this scene are a bit sad: she's alone at her home which doesn't even have furniture yet or reliable electricity (hence the candle).

 

Thanks for any help!

[Shelley]

This intrigued me, I have never heard of but it makes sense.

 

I typed "candle tears" into google and I had a quick look at several of the results, It seems to be a common usage but it also seems to be used mainly in a "semi-religious" way and with fortune telling. There is apparently a whole "science" of divination related to how a candle burns.

 

For example:

If the tears melt away and are gone by the time the candle is finished, the sorrow will pass in due time. If the tears persist after the candle is finished and either hang down like icicles, tall columns, or spires of unburned wax tears the sorrow will be of long effect.

 

 

Hope this helps, I certainly have learnt something new.

[Kenny同志]

am I correct in assuming that she is using 眼泪 as a poetic description of the dripping candle wax (and metaphor of her own feelings),

 

 

I think you are correct. It's a common example of metaphor.

 

 A literary term for 'candle tears' is 燭淚. I don't think 眼淚 can be used to refer to them unless metaphorically. 

[Publius]

Well that metaphor is at least over a thousand years old.

春蚕到死丝方尽，

蜡炬成灰泪始干。

——李商隐《无题》

[Lu]

Publius, Kenny, thanks for the confirmation, I'll translate it literally as 'tears' then!

 

'Als het nacht werd, stak ik een witte kaars aan en keek naar de vormen die de druppende tranen van de kaars maakten.'

(When night came, I would light a white candle and watch the shapes that the dripping tears of the candle made.)