I'm so happy you like this ci. In fact, just due to your support and encouragement all along, I have the passion to grow my "red peonies" from time to time.
Basically, the ancient Chinese poem is antithetical and more balanced, each line having the same charater numbers, while ci is a little free in style, with the rhymed lines of unequal length. As usual, ci lays more emphasis on lyricism than poem. Maybe we can say that ci is to poem what senry is to Haiku. And I'd never heard of senry before I read the blog about the difference between Senry and Haiku by the great @raj808.
Most of famous poets in Song Dynasty such as Su Shi, Lu You, etc. were good at writing both poem and ci. The leader of Chinese Community Party--Chairman Mao(Mao Zedong) was actually more a great ci doer than a poet. He wrote quiet a few excellent ci(s) which expressed his strong emotions, especially during the war times.
Thank you for pointing that the translator may use the misspelled English word--shoulde for effect. Or it is not the original version from Xu Yuanchong since I can't find the complete version online.