Far through the night a harp is sighing
With a sadness of wind and rain in the strings...
There's a solitary lantern, a bugle-call --
And beyond Terrace Tower down goes the moon.
...Fragrant grasses have changed and faded
While still I have been hoping that my old friend would come...
There are no more messengers I can send him,
Now that the wildgeese have turned south.
Original Poem:
「章台夜思」
韦庄
清瑟怨遥夜， 绕弦风雨哀。
孤灯闻楚角， 残月下章台。
芳草已云暮， 故人殊未来。
乡书不可寄， 秋雁又南回。
Interpretation:
This poem was sent by the poet to his family. At that time in the late Tang Dynasty, war and chaos, the whole poem is due to the war and strife, detained in his hometown, have a home hard to return to the deep grief.
In the first line, the bleak sound of the qin and sepals accompanied by the wind and rain outside the window like a complaint, seemingly complaining about the long dark night.
Then the poet shaped a distinctive image: the post house, the night is quiet, an oil lamp on the table with a yellowish light, in the window from time to time in the cold wind shivering; a bend of the moon cold light into the house.
Grass is heartless, loved ones even more outside the grass, evening, looking at the road back to the end of the grass, home is difficult to return, friends and relatives no one to come.
Lastly, it points out the endless sadness of traveling to other places and missing relatives.
Because of the war, even if the written letters can not be sent out, the sky south of the geese flew over, can not help but touch the poet has lived in his hometown, thinking of relatives of the strands of feelings. Yes, the geese can still return to the south on time, and the poet detained in his hometown, but it is difficult to return home, how can it not make people’s hearts broken?
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the Poet:
Wei Zhuang (韦庄), circa 836 – 910 A.D., a native of Xi’an in the southeast of Shaanxi Province, was a scholar and a minister of the Ministry of Revenue. There is a collection of “Raccoon Flower Collections” in circulation.
