I met you often when you were visiting princes
And when you were playing in noblemen's halls.
...Spring passes... Far down the river now,
I find you alone under falling petals.
Original Poem:
「江南逢李龟年」
杜甫
岐王宅里寻常见， 崔九堂前几度闻。
正是江南好风景， 落花时节又逢君。
Interpretation:
In the spring of 770 A.D., Du Fu's lonely boat drifted to Changsha, Hunan Province, where he met Li Guinian, a famous singer who lived in the area around Jiangxiang, and the vicissitudes of the years made him feel a great deal of emotion, and thus he wrote this poem.
In the first two lines, I often saw you in the residence of King Qi and Cui Jiu, and heard your songs.
The poet recalls his contact with Li Guinian. Du Fu was born in an official family, so he was able to go in and out of the residences of Li Fan, the king of Qi, and Cui Jiu, the secretary-general, to enjoy Li Guinian's singing when he was a teenager. These two lines not only write out the frequent contact between Du Fu and Li Guinian, but also hint at the prosperous scene of “Kaiyuan Full Bloom” during the Tang Dynasty: the songs and dances and the incessant pianos and pipes.
The last two lines: now is just the time of the beautiful scenery of Jiangnan, in the twilight of the spring season again met you.
Time is the late spring in March, the location is the beautiful scenery of Jiangnan, heavy feelings, full of how many personnel vicissitudes! Remembering the past, Li Guinian, famous for a while; Du Fu is young, ambitious. But now, after the Anshi Rebellion, Li Guinian exile in Jiangnan, along the street drums, singing endless dreams of rise and fall; Du Fu alone, wandering, sparse cloth wrapped around the feet of the bitter not warm, poor and sad.
From the Qi-wang's house, Cui Jiu in front of the hall to the fallen flowers in Jiangnan, linked to the vicissitudes of the times and life changes in the past forty years. Though the poem does not touch upon the times and the world, the poet's reminiscences show the shadow of the great turmoil that brought havoc to the Tang society's material wealth and cultural prosperity, as well as the great disasters and traumas that it caused to the people.
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.
