Against the City of the Yellow Dragon
Our troops were sent long years ago,
And girls here watch the same melancholy moon
That lights our Chinese warriors --
And young wives dream a dream of spring,
That last night their heroic husbands,
In a great attack, with flags and drums,
Captured the City of the Yellow Dragon.
Original Poem:
「杂诗」
沈佺期
闻道黄龙戍， 频年不解兵。
可怜闺里月， 长在汉家营。
少妇今春意， 良人昨夜情。
谁能将旗鼓， 一为取龙城。
Interpretation:
This poem expresses the pain of military service with the feelings of a child, and is full of the idea of non-war. This poem is one of the most widely circulated works of Shen Nephew. The poem boils down to two points: the young woman’s longing for each other and the soldier, and the hope for an early end to the endless war.
The area around Huanglongshu is a place of constant fighting, and a strong feeling of resentment against the war overflows between the lines. Then the poet wrote a young woman in the bosom and the recruiter miss each other, the poet borrowed the moon to express his feelings, said that tonight the recruiter misses the woman, the two places to the moon. In the eyes of the husband, in the past, the two had played together in the boudoir of the bright moon, and now constantly in the camp shines on him, as if with deep love; and in the eyes of the young woman in the boudoir, it seems that the bright moon in front of the eyes is not as good as it used to be, because that symbolizes the good life of the full moon, has long since left the boudoir, with the good man to go to the faraway places.
That last night the couple farewell scene is still in front of the eyes, this spring’s good time is wasted, let the young woman doubly feel depressed. The poet reveals that the war has made the young woman and her husband so homesick and sad, so the poet hopes that someone can command the army and defeat the enemy in one fell swoop to end the war, so that the families can be reunited soon and the people can live in peace and work in contentment, which is also the theme of this poem. This is also the theme of the poem.
The subject matter of this poem is not novel, but the writing style is very unique, especially in the middle two couplets, the moon expresses emotion, and the outline clearly draws a picture of love under the moon in a different place with the same view of a bright moon. The verses are short and subtle.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the Poet:
Shen Quanqi(沈佺期) was a native of Neihuang, Henan Province, circa 656-714 AD. He and Song Zhiwen were both important poets in the early Tang Dynasty, and were known as “Shen and Song”. He and Song Zhiwen not only had similar life experiences, but also had similar poetic tendencies, mostly in response to the systematic poems of whitewashing and promotion, but also in some works with a more life-like flavor.
