Through the bright day up the mountain, we scan the sky for a war-torch ;
At yellow dusk we water our horses in the boundary-river;
And when the throb of watch-drums hangs in the sandy wind,
We hear the guitar of the Chinese Princess telling her endless woe…
Three thousand miles without a town, nothing but camps,
Till the heavy sky joins the wide desert in snow.
With their plaintive calls, barbarian wildgeese fly from night to night,
And children of the Tartars have many tears to shed;
But we hear that the Jade Pass is still under siege,
And soon we stake our lives upon our light war-chariots.
Each year we bury in the desert bones unnumbered,
Yet we only watch for grape-vines coming into China.
Original Poem:
「古从军行」
李颀
白日登山望烽火，黄昏饮马傍交河。
行人刁斗风沙暗，公主琵琶幽怨多。
野营万里无城郭，雨雪纷纷连大漠。
胡雁哀鸣夜夜飞，胡儿眼泪双双落。
闻道玉门犹被遮，应将性命逐轻车。
年年战骨埋荒外，空见蒲桃入汉家。
Interpretation:
This poem is a masterpiece of Tang Dynasty Border Poetry, the theme of this poem is anti-war, it is written using the tone and perspective of a warrior, expressing the bitter cold mentality of the warrior in the bitter cold environment of the front line, aiming to reveal the cruelty of the war, and expressing the author’s very high anti-war sentiment.
The first part describes a day of hard life for the soldiers, pointing out the time and place. The words day and dusk suggest to the reader that throughout the day, or perhaps even every day, the life of a warrior is a monotonous and arduous one of riding a warhorse on a border patrol. The subsequent creation of the harsh environment of the border, with pedestrians and princesses as the main body to set off the harsh sands of the border and the sadness of the mood, through the depiction of the natural scenery, showing the border of the empty and barren, so that the purpose of writing for the service of the anti-war theme: such a barren place, what is the need for the court to let the warriors to come here to die on the battlefield?
The latter part of the inherent things in the north and the disappointment of the living environment of the borderland to further infect the reader, empty and deserted borderland and what can make people fight for their lives? Criticising the Han Dynasty court for disregarding the lives of its soldiers for the sake of the border wars, a familiar fact is used to criticise the fact that the booty brought to the Central Plains by the border wars was nothing more than a kind of plant, whereas the price it cost was the blood of thousands of soldiers.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
