Under the crescent moon a light autumn dew
Has chilled the robe she will not change --
And she touches a silver lute all night,
Afraid to go back to her empty room.
Original Poem:
「秋夜曲」
王维
桂魄初生秋露微， 轻罗已薄未更衣。
银筝夜久殷勤弄， 心怯空房不忍归。
Interpretation:
This is a gentle and subtle poem about a girl's love.
The first two lines: an autumn moon has just risen and the autumn dew has just begun to appear, the clothes are already thin but I don't want to change other clothes.
At the beginning of the night, the moon has just risen from the east, and the weather is already cool, but it is not yet cold, giving people a sense of coolness, and emphasizing the heroine's cold and lonely mood. Because the weather has been cool, worn by the light and soft Luo Yi, already feel thin. But not yet feel the cold unbearable, so have not changed clothes. The words are filled with the heroine's feelings of missing her husband because she needs to change clothes due to the cool autumn.
The last two sentences: late at night, she is still attentively plucking the silver kite, so she is afraid of the loneliness of the empty room and can't bear to return.
At the end of the night, she is still fiddling with the silver kite. In the silence of the night, the sound of the silver zither becomes more and more clear and crisp, and the sound of the zither cuts and cuts, seeming to stir up her inner world. Then, through the heroine's psychological activities, it shows her grief of being alone in the house. It is written that the heroine misses her husband so much that she can't sleep at night and is unwilling to stay alone in the house, so she only plays the zither to dispel her desolate and lonely feelings.
The whole poem is about the seclusion and loneliness of the thinking woman, and the language is very euphemistic, hiding the shyness of the emotions.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Wang Wei (王维), 701-761 A.D., was a native of Yuncheng, Shanxi Province. Wang Wei was a poet of landscape and idylls. His poems of landscape and idylls, with far-reaching images and mysterious meanings, were widely loved by readers in later generations, but Wang Wei never really became a man of landscape and idylls.
