They say that wildgeese, flying southward,
Here turn back, this very month...
Shall my own southward journey
Ever be retraced, I wonder?
...The river is pausing at ebb-tide,
And the woods are thick with clinging mist --
But tomorrow morning, over the mountain,
Dawn will be white with the plum-trees of home.
Original Poem:
「题大庾岭北驿」
宋之问
阳月南飞雁，传闻至此回。
我行殊未已，何日复归来？
江静潮初落，林昏瘴不开。
明朝望乡处，应见陇头梅。
Interpretation:
This is a poem written by Song Zhiwen when he was exiled to the south of Lingnan and passed through Dayu Ling, and was inscribed at the Lingbei Post. Song Zhiwen was a famous court poet during the reign of Wu Zetian, and was quite favored. When Wu Zetian abdicated, Song Zhiwen was relegated to the position of a military officer at Luoding East in Guangdong because of his friendship with Zhang Yizhi. From the court minister suddenly reduced to the crime of banishment, and far from home and friends and relatives, only far away from Lingnan, his heart’s pain and grief can be imagined. So when he came to Dayu Mountain North Post, he wrote this poem.
The poet said goodbye to his family and friends, and to Chang’an, where he had lived for a long time, and came to Dayu Ling. Thinking that by crossing the ridge, he would be saying goodbye to the Central Plains where his hometown is located, and entering the barbaric south of the mountain, he saw the geese flying south, and remembered the legend that the geese flew to this place and would not go south again, so he could not help but write the first two lines of the poem. The geese flew south and stopped flying here, but the author himself was exiled to a place where the geese did not fly. The geese’s southern flight has both a limit and a return period, while the author himself has to continue to travel south, and I don’t know when and how he can come back.
Then write the scene. River tide down, forest fog filled, twilight is getting thick, everything around more and more looks desolate, is obviously a reflection of the author’s state of mind. The last two lines are an anticipation of tomorrow morning: the plum blossoms of Dayu Mountain are already in bloom, and the author imagines that when he travels south on the mountain tomorrow, and looks back at his hometown, what he will see will no longer be his hometown’s scenery but the plum blossoms on the heights of Yu Ling. These two lines express the author’s feelings of farewell to his hometown.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the Poet:
Song Zhiwen (宋之问), 656-712 A.D., was a native of Fenyang, Shanxi, and it is also said that he was a native of Lingbao, Henan. He was admitted as a jinshi in 675 AD. At the time of Wu Zetian, he was a courtier with literary talent and was quite favored. Later, he was convicted for befriending Zhang Yi Zhi and was relegated to the rank of senator in Takizhou. In 708 A.D., he was transferred to the rank of “Examining Officer” and became a bachelor of Xiuwenkuan with Du Shenyan and Xue Ji, but he was also relegated to the rank of “Chief Historian of Yuezhou” on the charge of accepting a bribe. In 710 AD, he was exiled to Qinzhou. In 710, he was exiled to Qinzhou. Emperor Xuanzong gave him death in 712 AD. He had a collection of Song Zhiwen.
