On a part of a spear still unrusted in the sand
I have burnished the symbol of an ancient kingdom...
Except for a wind aiding General Zhou Yu,
Spring would have sealed both Qiao girls in CopperBird Palace.
Original Poem:
「赤壁」
杜牧
折戟沉沙铁未销，自将磨洗认前朝。
东风不与周郎便，铜雀春深锁二乔。
Interpretation:
The poet went to be the assassin of Huangzhou, passing by the ancient battlefield of Red Cliff, and wrote this poem because of the success or failure of the heroes of the Three Kingdoms. The title of the poem is a title of a place, but it is actually a poem about the history of the ancient people.
The poem opens with an ancient halberd, which brings out the sighs of regret for the ancients and the ancient things. In the Red Cliff War was abandoned a broken halberd, sunk in the sand underwater for more than 600 years, has not been rusted off, was found. After some of their own scrubbing, finally recognized as relics of the year, so sigh. By the halberd associated with the end of the Han dynasty split turmoil, think of the significance of the battle, but also think of the important characters of the battle. The first two lines are written to express the sigh of relief. The first two sentences write the reason for sighing.
In the latter two, Zhou Yu mainly used fire attack in the Battle of Red Cliff to defeat Cao’s army, which was several times larger than his own. The reason why the fire attack worked was because at the moment of the battle, a strong east wind was blowing. Therefore, to comment on the reasons for the success or failure of this battle, the author only chose to write about the winner and the reason for his victory, the east wind.
Why Du Mu, who was conceited of knowing the military and good governance, attributed Zhou Yu’s great victory in the battle of Red Cliff to the occasional east wind? His intention was that “the time has no heroes, making the vertical son famous”. The mood of this poem lies in the third and fourth lines from the opposite of the historical facts of the imaginary place of writing, will be iron blood things, with the beauty of the depiction, narrated, intriguing.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Du Mu (杜牧), 803-853 AD, was a native of Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. Among the poets of the Late Tang Dynasty, he was one of those who had his own characteristics, and later people called Li Shangyin and Du Mu as “Little Li and Du”. His poems are bright and colorful.
