The eyebrow-like cool moon hangs over Willow Bay,
The southern mountains seem in the mirror to sway.
Three days rain's fallen with peach petals on the stream;
At midnight on the beach leap the fish, carp and bream.
Original Poem:
「兰溪棹歌」
戴叔伦
凉月如眉挂柳湾，越中山色镜中看。
兰溪三日桃花雨，半夜鲤鱼来上滩。
Interpretation:
This is a boat song rich in the flavor of folk songs. The whole poem is written with fresh and subtle strokes to show the beauty of the landscape of Lanxi and the joy of the fishermen.
The first two lines: A moth-eyebrow moon, reflecting the cold darkness, hangs low on the willow tops of the water bay. The water in Yuezhong is as clear as a mirror, and the beautiful colors on both sides of the river are reflected in the bottom of the water.
Both write the moon color Xulang, but also point out the cool and pleasant climate after the spring rain. The poet looked down and watched the stream. The landscape of Lanxi was extremely elegant and charming, with the brightness of the moonlight, the calmness of the stream, and the clearness of the water color. Here, the poet did not intentionally render the sparse stars and moonlight, but only said “mirror”, which inspires the reader to imagine that the elegant Lanxi mountain color, in the reflection of the stream, swaying, hazy and ethereal, so that people such as to fall into the fairyland in general. The light ink and brush strokes depict a wonderful artistic realm.
The last two lines: After three days of spring rain, the water in Lanxi surged, and the fish flocked to the shallows at the head of the stream in the middle of the night.
The boat continued to move forward, without realizing that it had already sailed from the smooth mirror-like water to the beach head. Hearing the sound of the beach, the poet associated with days of spring rain, Lanxi water rose, the sound of the beach also sounded more rapid. In the sound of the beach, it seems that from time to time I hear the fish against the water when the splashing sound, the poet can not help but think, this is the joy of the carp to take advantage of the rising water of the spring river, in the beach and up.
This poem, the poet will be the landscape of the bright and moving, the moon's fresh and bright, the fishermen's happy and joyful, show in the clear and beautiful scroll, read to give people a sense of beauty as if they were there.
Poem translator:
Xu Yuan-chong (许渊冲)
About the Poet:
Dai Shulun (戴叔伦), 732 - 789 AD, was a native of Jintan, Jiangsu Province. During the Anshi Rebellion, he lived in Poyang and studied behind closed doors, and was later recruited by Liu Yan to serve in the Transit House. Dai Shulun's poems mostly express the leisure of a secluded life, and there are also some poems exposing social contradictions and reflecting the people's hardships, with a broader content, and his poetic style is elegant and clear.
