Far off in Fu-chou she is watching the moonlight,
Watching it alone from the window of her chamber -
For our boy and girl, poor little babes,
Are too young to know where the Capital is.
Her cloudy hair is sweet with mist,
Her jade-white shoulder is cold in the moon.
...When shall we lie again, with no more tears,
Watching this bright light on our screen?
Original Poem:
「月夜」
杜甫
今夜鄜州月，闺中只独。
遥怜小儿女，未解忆长安。
香雾云鬟湿，清辉玉臂寒。
何时倚虚幌，双照泪痕干？
Interpretation:
This poem was written at the same time as Spring Hope, around the fall of 756 AD. In August of this year, Du Fu was captured in the fallen Chang’an, his family was in Qiang village in Shanshan, although not imprisoned, but freedom has been lost, life and death are uncertain, so he was thinking of his family day by day, and wrote this poem of sincere feelings.
The first line of the poet does not directly write their own moonlit night thinking of relatives, but from the opposite cut into the remote thought of living in Shanshan state “bosom” wife to the moon “alone”, thinking of worrying about their own anxieties and feelings of loneliness.
The first couplet is followed by the second couplet, which is about the children who are not familiar with the world and don’t understand their mother’s longing for their father, who has fallen to Chang’an!
The neck couplet writes about his wife looking at the moon alone for a long time, which further expresses her “memory of Chang’an” feelings of longing. The night is deep, the fog is thick, the wife’s hair is soaked by the fog, the cold moonlight to her arm cold, she is still independent of the courtyard, thinking of her husband does not know the life and death of the moon cold tears, this is how miserable scene ah!
Finally, the poet’s desire for future reunion. That is, when we can lean together in front of the window curtains, so that the moonlight will dry the two tears with the sadness! It expresses the poet’s strong desire for reunion and his condemnation and resentment of the separation of family members caused by the war!
The whole poem is uniquely conceived, the opposite of the title, the sentiment is continuous, truly touching.
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.
