Thinking only of their vow that they would crush the Tartars- -
On the desert, clad in sable and silk, five thousand of them fell....
But arisen from their crumbling bones on the banks of the river at the border,
Dreams of them enter, like men alive, into rooms where their loves lie sleeping.
Original Poem:
「陇西行」
誓扫匈奴不顾身， 五千貂锦丧胡尘。
可怜无定河边骨， 犹是深闺梦里人。
Interpretation:
The theme of this poem is anti-war. Since the Anshi Rebellion in Tang, the country has been declining, and wars with foreigners have been frequent. Generals stationed at the borders have been killed in battle to fight against foreign invasions, and it is a common phenomenon for wives to be left alone in their homes. This poem expresses the sympathy for the wives of the soldiers and exposes the misfortune brought by the war to millions of families.
In the first two lines, they swore to sweep away the Xiong Nu and stabilize the border, and each one of them went to the front line without a second thought, but in the end, these 5,000 warriors wearing sable brocade were all killed in battle.
Write is the generals heroic defense of the country, generous, highly praised the noble patriotism of the soldiers. Five thousand warriors sacrificed their lives for righteousness, all died in battle, this is a tragic scene.
The last two sentences: the warriors donated to the battlefield into the Wuding River side of the tired white bones, but appeared in the dream of the young woman in the spring or the figure of their lives.
The cold white bones are the warm lover in the dream of the young woman in the spring boudoir, this extremely discordant unity contains how deep sorrow and bitterness, the husband has died in battle, and the young woman in the boudoir without knowing, still immersed in the past together at home in the scene of the past, still waiting for her lover to return in triumph, this has been the despair of the hope of letting a person to read a sudden feeling of sour eyes, choking for the choking.
This poem profoundly reveals the misfortunes brought by the war to the majority of families in an almost absurd way, and expresses the poet's distinctive anti-war ideology.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
Chen Tao (陈陶) was a poet of the Late Tang Dynasty, a native of Poyang, Jiangxi Province. Most of his poems are about landscapes, but there are also some that express his feelings of being unrecognized. He was famous for his poems and traveled to Chang'an, but he failed to get a scholarship.
