Farther and farther from the three Ba Roads,
I have come three thousand miles, anxious and watchful,
Through pale snow-patches in the jagged nightmountains --
A stranger with a lonely lantern shaken in the wind.
...Separation from my kin
Binds me closer to my servants --
Yet how I dread, so far adrift,
New Year's Day, tomorrow morning!
Original Poem:
「除夜有怀」
崔涂
迢递三巴路， 羁危万里身。
乱山残雪夜， 孤独异乡春。
渐与骨肉远， 转于僮仆亲。
那堪正飘泊， 明日岁华新。
Interpretation:
Cui Tu wrote many poems about traveling sorrow, this poem is one of them, this poem expresses the poet’s full of sorrow on the night of the Spring Festival to the hometown relatives incomparably nostalgic.
First of all, he writes about the environment in which the poet was living on New Year’s Eve, drifting on the treacherous and difficult road of Ba Shu. Now the poet is miles away from his hometown, in the distant way trekking, the environment of the treacherous, the drift of the difficult, self-evident. Then the image of the poet sitting alone on New Year’s Eve is presented to the reader: in the mountains, the snow has not melted; in the mountain inn, the lonely lamp flickering light, the poet sits alone, worried about the lamp.
Loneliness is fortunate that there is a child servant relatives, for the snowy New Year’s Eve added a little warmth. And then directly expressed his feelings, the whole poem will be homesickness feelings to the climax: how to bear the pain and suffering of wandering away from home? Tomorrow is the first day of the Lunar New Year, the year will turn over a new page, and when will my days of being far away from my flesh and blood and relatives and wandering without support come to an end?
The first two lines of the poem are about scenery, from far to near, from panorama to close-up, the picture is clear. The last two couplets are lyrical, deepening layer by layer, with endless words and endless meaning. Although the tone is low, it is the mournful sound of the times sung by the intellectuals in the troubled society of the late Tang Dynasty.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Cui Tu(崔涂), should be today’s China zhejiang tonglu, jiande area people. Xizong Guangqi bachelor, strong guest Bashu, the old tour of Longshan, so much to write travel sad work.
