Who is lovelier than she?
Yet she lives alone in an empty valley.
She tells me she came from a good family
Which is humbled now into the dust.
…When trouble arose in the Kuan district,
Her brothers and close kin were killed.
What use were their high offices,
Not even shielding their own lives? --
The world has but scorn for adversity;
Hope goes out, like the light of a candle.
Her husband, with a vagrant heart,
Seeks a new face like a new piece of jade;
And when morning-glories furl at night
And mandarin-ducks lie side by side,
All he can see is the smile of the new love,
While the old love weeps unheard.
The brook was pure in its mountain source,
But away from the mountain its waters darken.
…Waiting for her maid to come from selling pearls
For straw to cover the roof again,
She picks a few flowers, no longer for her hair,
And lets pine-needles fall through her fingers,
And, forgetting her thin silk sleeve and the cold,
She leans in the sunset by a tall bamboo.
Original Poem:
「佳人」
杜甫
绝代有佳人， 幽居在空谷。
自云良家子， 零落依草木。
关中昔丧乱， 兄弟遭杀戮。
官高何足论， 不得收骨肉。
世情恶衰歇， 万事随转烛。
夫婿轻薄儿， 新人美如玉。
合昏尚知时， 鸳鸯不独宿。
但见新人笑， 那闻旧人哭。
在山泉水清， 出山泉水浊。
侍婢卖珠回， 牵萝补茅屋。
摘花不插发， 采柏动盈掬。
天寒翠袖薄， 日暮倚修竹。
Interpretation:
In the fall of 759 A.D., after Du Fu resigned from his post as a military officer in Huazhou, he had no choice but to bring his wife and child over the Long Mountains to Qinzhou. This poem, written in Qinzhou, is about a woman’s chastity and misfortune during the Anshi Rebellion.
At the beginning of the poem, the poet begins with a statement that he has met a beautiful woman who lives in the deep mountains and empty valleys. Then, the poet uses the woman’s voice to describe what happened to her during the war: she was originally a woman from an innocent family, but during the war, she could only rely on the mountains, forests and trees, and lived a lonely and lonely life. This is because of the Anshi Rebellion, the high official position of the brother was killed, even the flesh and bones are not allowed to receive burial. In addition, the world is cold, her frivolous husband because of her mother’s family died to go and abandoned her, and new people to go to the pleasure.
She described herself to this point, grief and indignation, said the birds and flowers are still trustworthy and sentimental, but now people are abandoning the old and preferring the new, lamentable!
But she was not overwhelmed by the unfortunate fate, the poet pointed out that the beauty of the mountain as the spring, living alone in the deep valley, with the grass and trees as neighbors, to maintain a noble temperament! Her head is not decorated, hair is not flowers, pick cypress seeds for food; cold, thin clothes; leaning on the bamboo at dusk and the wind, the heroine can be seen to be poor and abide by the road, such as pine and cypress, bamboo, generally, has a noble chastity and integrity!
The whole poem spreads out the matter, the poet through the beautiful life encounter and chastity character description, the sage lost his post, go to the country to think of home, to express their noble feelings and serve the country no door of the unspeakable pain and grief!
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.
