Her candle-light is silvery on her chill bright screen.
Her little silk fan is for fireflies....
She lies watching her staircase cold in the moon,
And two stars parted by the River of Heaven.
Original Poem:
「秋夕」
杜牧
银烛秋光冷画屏，轻罗小扇扑流萤。
天阶夜色凉如水，坐看牵牛织女星。
Interpretation:
This poem expresses the bleak state of mind and lonely life of a deserted courtesan.
The first two lines paint a picture of the desolate life in the palace: at night in autumn, the candlelight is trembling and the screen is dark. At this time, a lonely palace maid is using a small fan to beat the fireflies flying around. The fan was originally used for fanning in summer to get cool, but it is useless in autumn, so ancient poets often use the autumn fan to compare the abandoned woman.
The third and fourth lines immediately following the first two lines, is that the night is already deep, cool air, when into the house into the dream. However, the courtesan is still sitting on the stone steps, watching the Altair and the Weaving Maiden on both sides of the Heavenly River. Probably the story of the cowherd and the weaving maiden touched her heart! She laments her own misfortune and admires the fortune of others.
There is not a single lyrical sentence in the whole poem, but the complex emotions of the palace maiden, which are intertwined with her grief and expectation, are penetrating through the paper, reflecting the miserable destiny of women under the feudal system in one corner.
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.
