Flowers are shadowed, the palace darkens,
Birds twitter by for a place to perch;
Heaven's ten thousand windows are twinkling,
And nine cloud-terraces are gleaming in the moonlight.
...While I wait for the golden lock to turn,
I hear jade pendants tinkling in the wind...
I have a petition to present in the morning,
All night I ask what time it is.
Original Poem:
「春宿左省」
杜甫
花隐掖垣暮， 啾啾栖鸟过。
星临万户动， 月傍九霄多。
不寝听金钥， 因风想玉珂。
明朝有封事， 数问夜如何。
Interpretation:
In April, 757 A.D., Du Fu fled from Chang’an to Fengxiang, where he visited Emperor Suzong. In May, he was appointed to the post of left picker. In August, because he missed his family in Haozhou, he took a leave of absence to visit his relatives in Shanshu. In September, the Tang army recovered Chang’an, the capital controlled by the Anshi rebels. In October, Emperor Su Zong returned to the capital from Fengxiang, and Du Fu also traveled from Shanshan to Chang’an, where he remained as the left picker. This poem was written in the spring of 758 A.D. It describes the night shift when he was the left picker, and how he was loyal to his duties and diligent in serving the country.
First of all, he wrote about the scenery he saw when he was on night shift in the left province. The shadow of the flowers and the birds are flying and chirping, pointing out that it is the scene of dusk. Then he wrote about the scene from twilight to the depth of the night. Inside the palace, the stars are shining brightly, and it seems that thousands of doors and ten thousand houses are flashing; and the towering palace seems to be close to the moon, so the moonlight it receives is especially “many” and bright.
The neck link writes the scene of the night shift. Can not sleep because of the shift, as if I heard the key sound of the palace door; because the wind blowing the eaves in front of the bells, naturally think of the officials riding the bells of the horse to the court scene. These imaginative rhetoric, a true expression of the poet’s careful, diligent state of mind.
The last couplet writes that the night will be dawn their own not sleep uneasiness cause. Because of the thought of dealing with the seal for the emperor on the zhangzhang, upset, restless, that is, a few hours into the night.
The whole poem in chronological order, from twilight to night, from the depth of the night to the dawn, from the dawn to the morning, written in turn, clear and not stagnant, true and evocative. The first four lines of the poem are about scenery and the last four lines are about feelings. The combination of scenery and feelings makes the structure of the poem rigorous and dynamic, and the poetic meaning of the poem is implied and clear.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Du Fu (杜甫), 712 – 770 AD, was a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, known as the “Sage of Poetry”. Born into a declining bureaucratic family, Du Fu had a rough life, and his turbulent and dislocated life made him keenly aware of the plight of the masses. Therefore, his poems were always closely related to the current affairs, reflecting the social life of that era in a more comprehensive way, with profound thoughts and a broad realm. In his poetic art, he was able to combine many styles, forming a unique style of “profound and thick”, and becoming a great realist poet in the history of China.
