Here, where you spent your three years' exile,
To be mourned in Chu ten thousand years,
Can I trace your footprint in the autumn grass --
Or only slanting sunlight through the bleak woods?
If even good Emperor Wen was cold-hearted,
Could you hope that the dull river Xiang would understand you,
These desolate waters, these taciturn mountains,
When you came, like me, so far away?
Original Poem:
「长沙过贾谊宅」
刘长卿
三年谪宦此栖迟， 万古惟留楚客悲。
秋草独寻人去后， 寒林空见日斜时。
汉文有道恩犹薄， 湘水无情吊岂知？
寂寂江山摇落处， 怜君何事到天涯？
Interpretation:
This is a poem of remembrance, which can be regarded as one of the finest seven rhymes of Tang poetry. Judging from the late autumn scenery depicted in this poem, it was written when the poet came to Changsha for his second banishment, which was at the turn of autumn and winter, and the poet came to Jia Yi’s former residence in Changsha alone on a late autumn night. Similar encounters made the poet feel a great deal of emotion, which led to this poem.
Jia Yi: a famous political commentator during the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, he was relegated to the post of the king’s tai fu in Changsha for three years because he was vilified by the rich and powerful. Although he was later recalled to the capital, he was not reused and died of depression.
Sentences hooked together, echoing compact, giving people a sense of depression and heavy sadness. Like a bird like the convergence of the wings to rest, fly up the life is not frightened, stranded in a foreign country how not to make the poet “sad” it? A “sad” word, set the tone of the whole poem, not only fit Jia Yi’s life, but also implied Liu Changqing’s own banishment of the hard life.
In the third line, the poem renders a desolate and cold scene of the former residence, and in such an atmosphere, the poet has to go to the “solitary search”, a kind of admiration to the admiration, lonely and sighing mood, which comes into being. Cold forest sun slanting, not only is the eyes see, more then Jia Yi’s actual situation, but also is the Li Tang dynasty critical situation of the reflection.
From Jia Yi’s see sparse, vaguely linked to their own. Called “the way” of Han Wendi, Jia Yi is still such a thin grace, which is hanging the ancients, pity yourself. At that time, the Tang Dynasty Emperor, who was muddleheaded and incompetent, certainly could not say anything about Liu Changqing’s favor. Liu Changqing’s relegation again and again, sinking down, is inevitable. Here, the poet will be dark irony of the pen twists and turns to point to the current emperor, the technique is very skillful.
The last line draws a picture of a deserted village at sunset. Twilight is thicker, more silent, an autumn wind blew, yellow leaves have fallen. This is exactly the environment in which the poet lives, it symbolizes the decline of the country at that time, aggravating the work of the times and emotional color. The chord of the couplet is: I and you are both innocent, why should we be punished so severely?
The poet has a feeling that he pities the ancients as well as himself. The poem is deep and sad, the language is subtle, and the author’s immense pain and injustice overflows between the lines.
About the poet:
Liu Zhangqing (刘长卿-) was a native of Xian County, Hebei Province. He studied at Mt. Songshan when he was young, and later moved to Jiangxi, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 733 A.D. He also belonged to the Wang and Meng school of poetry. His poems belonged to the school of Wang and Meng, and he was most famous for his five-character poems, and was also most conceited, once thinking that he was “the Great Wall of five-character poems”, which meant that no one could surpass him.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
