In dangerous times we two came south ;
Now you g o north in safety, without me.
But remember my head growing white among strangers,
When you look on the blue of the mountains of home.
...The moon goes down behind a ruined fort,
Leaving star-clusters above an old gate...
There are shivering birds and withering grasses,
Whichever way I turn my face.
Original Poem:
「贼平后送人北归」
司空曙
本以高难饱，徒旁限费声。
五更疏欲断，一树碧无情。
薄宦梗犹泛，故园芜已平。
烦君最相警，我亦举家清。
Interpretation:
This is a poem about sending someone back to his hometown. The An Shi Rebellion lasted for eight years and displaced the people, so this poem was written soon after the end of the An Shi Rebellion. After the Anshi Rebellion had been settled, the author sent his friend, who had come south with him to escape the chaos, back to his hometown. The poem expresses his sorrow for the chaotic world by imagining the desolate and dilapidated scenes he saw on his way back.
During the Anshi Rebellion, the poet and his friend fled to the south together, and after the chaos subsided, the friend returned north alone. During these long years, everyone had gray hair in the process of moving from one country to another, and now only one of our friends has returned to his hometown. The poet imagines that the hometown after the war will be in a state of disrepair, and I am afraid that only the green hills will remain the same. The second half of the poem envisions the scene on the way back to the north of his friend: you will get up before dawn, when the moon is still hanging in the sky, and you will have to rest only in the night when the sky is full of stars, and you will travel early in the morning and stay late in the night, and you will pass through the remnants of the barricades and pass through the old customs; you will be alone, with no one to be your companion, and what you will see along the way will be the chilly fowls and decaying grasses that make you feel sad everywhere.
The poet wrote the feelings of farewell with friends, but also wrote the poet living alone in his hometown sadness, and twisted to express the infinite sadness of the destruction of the homeland.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
