News at this far western station! The north has been recaptured!
At first I cannot check the tears from pouring on my coat --
Where is my wife? Where are my sons?
Yet crazily sure of finding them, I pack my books and poems- -
And loud my song and deep my drink
On the green spring-day that starts me home,
Back from this mountain, past another mountain,
Up from the south, north again-to my own town!
Original Poem:
「闻官军收河南河北」
杜甫
剑外忽传收蓟北， 初闻涕泪满衣裳。
却看妻子愁何在？ 漫卷诗书喜欲狂。
白日放歌须纵酒， 青春作伴好还乡。
即从巴峡穿巫峡， 便下襄阳向洛阳。
Interpretation:
In the spring of 762 A.D., Du Fu was living in Santai, Sichuan, suddenly heard the news of the recovery of Henan and Hebei by the government troops, the long seven or eight years of the Anshi Rebellion finally came to an end, ecstatic, and hopefully back home, so he wielded his pen in a hurry to write.
The first couplet is about the joy of hearing the news of the recapture. Suddenly, the news of the victory of the official army to recover the northern part of the Thistle spread all over the land in Sichuan, and the displacement brought by the war for seven or eight years was coming to an end, which was really a mixture of sadness and joy, extreme joy and sadness, extreme sadness and joyful performance!
The poet’s mixed feelings of grief and joy, naturally think of their wives and children with their own suffering from the war, so look back, their faces full of sadness clouds do not know where to go, but a smile, joyful. So, they also have no intention of writing, casually rolled up the poetry, and family members with the same happy and joyful.
Then the poet closely linked to the “joy of madness”, to his wife’s tone, said: we should be in this great day “song”, “wine”, celebrating the victory; we should also be We should also be in the mood to return to the old, rejuvenated, and youthful children together, in this bright and sunny spring time, as a companion to return to their hometowns.
Speaking of “returning home”, the poet’s thoughts have drummed wings and fly, in Zizhou, while the “heart” has been along the Fuling River into the Jialing River through the Ba Gorge, and then into the Yangtze River out of the Wujia Gorge, downstream to Xiangyang, and then turn to the land to Luoyang, back to the hometown. The waves of surprise and emotion are like flood peaks rising up, rushing forward and pouring out in a thousand miles.
This is a rare poem in Du Fu’s collected poems that describes the feeling of joy. The whole poem is heartfelt and straightforward, without pretense, in a single breath, bright and natural, with surging feelings and rapid rhymes, which strongly expresses the poet’s mood and strong desire to return to his hometown when he first heard the news of the victory.
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.
