While my little boat moves on its mooring of mist,
And daylight wanes, old memories begin...
How wide the world was, how close the trees to heaven,
And how clear in the water the nearness of the moon!
Original Poem:
「宿建德江」
孟浩然
移舟泊烟渚， 日暮客愁新。
野旷天低树， 江清月近人。
Interpretation:
This is a poem about the twilight of the autumn river, the poet moored at night on the river, that is, the scene and made.
The first two lines: mooring the boat beside the smoky sandbar, new sorrows welled up again at sunset.
The boat was moored by the smoky sandbar at sunset, and the river was clouded with smoke. Originally the boat stopped, should rest quietly overnight, to eliminate the fatigue of the journey, who knows that in this crowd of birds return to the forest, cattle and sheep down the mountain at dusk, the traveler’s sadness and suddenly born.
The last two lines: the wilderness is boundless, the distant sky is lower than the near woods; the river is clear, the bright moon seems to be more intimate with people.
The next author writes out the moment of sunset, pale and vast, the wilderness is boundless, look around, the distant sky appears to be lower than the nearby trees, in this vast and quiet universe, after some up and down search, finally found that there is a round of the lonely moon at this moment and he is so close to the lonely heart of the sadness seems to find solace, the poem also stops here.
Meng Haoran’s poem, natural in the style of heavenly, light in the flavor, contain but not show.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Meng Haoran (孟浩然), 689-740 AD, a native of Xiangyang, Hubei, was a famous poet of the Sheng Tang Dynasty. With the exception of one trip to the north when he was in his forties, when he was seeking fame in Chang’an and Luoyang, he spent most of his life in seclusion in his hometown of Lumenshan or roaming around.
