Year: 2023

在北题壁  Writing the Poem on the Wall at North

赵佶        (Author: Zhao Ji, 12th century)

彻夜西风撼破扉，whole night west wind shake worn-out door
萧条孤馆一灯微。desolate alone house one candle tiny
家山回首三千里，home mountain return head three thousand li
目断天南无雁飞。look stop sky south no geese fly

 

Translation:

I’m alone in this empty house with one small candle
And all night long the west wind rattles the old wood door.
Looking back to my homeland three thousand miles away
I search the southern horizon but see no geese to carry our letters.

 

Translation Notes:

The author of the poem was technically the penultimate emperor of the Northern Song dynasty. While lacking talent in governing a nation, he was well-known for his talent in the areas of poetry, painting, music, and calligraphy. His ascent to the throne followed the passing of his elder brother who didn’t produce an heir. He was devoted to arts, literature, and culture during the early part of his reign. However, as the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty encroached upon the Song dynasty in 1126 AD, he abdicated, passing his crown to his eldest son and adopting the title “Retired Emperor.” This was a customary gesture in ancient Chinese history when an emperor foresaw a looming defeat, seeking to avoid the ignominious title of the last monarch abandoned by the heaven.

The following year witnessed the fall of the Song capital to Jin forces. He, along with his eldest son (technically the last emperor of the Northern Song dynasty), and the entire royal household, was taken captive by the Jurchens, with many royal consorts and princesses subjected to the miserable fate of becoming sex slaves―a dark episode chronicled as the “Humiliation of Jingkang.” The author spent the last nine years of his life in captivity, and this short poem reflects the harshness of his northern imprisonment.  The author discusses a wish that geese may carry messages from the South. The reason he wants to exchange messages with the South is that one of his surviving sons avoided the fate of being captured by the Jurchens, fled south, declared himself emperor, and continued the rule of the Song dynasty. The dream of return, unfortunately, never came true.

In translating this poem, we made two significant alterations to the original. We changed the order of the first two lines so that the reader begins by being located in the poet’s home and then hears the wind rattling the door. After some debate, we decided to make this change so that the translation would flow better and have a greater sense of immediacy. By reversing the order of the lines, however, we are centering the reader’s need to have the scene set and losing some of the subjective terror of the deposed king who first blurts out that the door has been rattling all night and then tells us where he is. We believe that a contemporary reader would have already understood the poem’s location and not have needed the explanation implied by the change we made. The final line of the poem ends with “no geese fly” in the original, but we added an explanation of why he was looking for geese. In both instances we have altered the original in an attempt to give the modern reader a better understanding of the events being described so that the reader would have some of the same experience of reading the poem that a Chinese person living at the time the poem was written would have had.

On a separate note, my friend Vickie and I have established a Substack dedicated to classical Chinese poems. Our Substack offers a deep historical context for the poems and organizes related poems into groups. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack (with free subscription) for regular updates featuring new translations and commentary articles.

夜雨寄北 （Mailing a Letter to the North during Night Rain）

李商隐    （Author: Li Shangyin, 9th century)

君问归期未有期，you ask return time no have time
巴山夜雨涨秋池。Ba mountain night rain rise/swell autumn pond
何当共剪西窗烛，when should together cut with scissor west window candle
却话巴山夜雨时    but talk Ba mountain night rain time

 

Translation:

You ask when I’ll return, but I don’t know what to tell you.
Here in Ba mountain, the night rains are swelling the autumn ponds.
Oh, when will we sit by the west window and trim the candle
While we talk about this rainy Ba mountain night?

 

Translation Notes:

Li Shangyin was in today’s Sichuan Provence, serving as the governor’s advisor when he wrote this poem. The poem was written after Li Shangyin’s wife died, but it is possible that he had not received word of her death yet. It is also possible that he knew of her death, but chose to express his grief in a longing, imaginary letter to her. What is extremely unlikely is that this could be a poem to a mistress or “blue building” lady. Though it was common for married men to write about women other than their wives, such poems emphasize the woman’s beauty, and sometimes her virtue or her loneliness; they are not peaceful domestic scenes, nor do they address the woman with the highly respectful ‘君’.

The term “Ba Mountain” reflects the fact that the mountain was in what once had been the Ba kingdom. The archaic term “Ba Mountain” gives the poem a sense of temporal depth, as if Shangyin were telling an ancient story. The terms “Chu Nation” and “Wu Nation” are also used quite often in classical Chinese poems. Chu and Wu are the names of ancient kingdoms, but are used as geographical references, e.g. the Chu Nation was in the southern part of China, so poets write that they are going to the Chu Nation when they travel south. Again, the use of these literary terms links the poems to a long literary tradition and imbues the work with a sense of timelessness.

On a separate note, my friend Vicke and I have established a Substack dedicated to classical Chinese poems. Our Substack offers a deep historical context for the poems and organizes related poems into groups. We invite you to subscribe to our Substack (with free subscription) for regular updates featuring new translations and commentary articles.

 

Some classic Chinese poems portray the grievances experienced by women in ancient Chinese history. The following three poems delve into the grievances of women in distinct ways, each offering a unique perspective.

 

春怨        Spring Sorrow

刘方平 （Author: Liu Fang Ping, 8th Century)

纱窗日落渐黄昏，gauze window sun set gradually dusk
金屋无人见泪痕。golden chamber no person see tear trace
寂寞空庭春欲晚，lonely lonely empty courtyard spring desire late
梨花满地不开门    pear blossom full of ground not open door

Translation: 

How slowly dusk descends as the sun sets beyond the muslin window
With no one in the golden chamber to see the tracks of her tears.
Oh, the loneliness of an empty courtyard when spring is almost gone
Pear blossoms cover the ground, but she won’t open the door.

 

赠内人 Send a gift to the palace’s singers and dancers

张诂    (Author: Zhang Gu, Tang Dynasty)

禁门宫树月痕过，forbidden door Palace tree moon trace pass
媚眼惟看宿鹭窠。charming eyes only see reside heron nest
斜拔玉钗灯影畔，slanting pull jade hairpin lamp shadow side
剔开红焰救飞蛾    reject open red flame rescue flying moth

Translation:

The forbidden door, the palace trees, a last trace of moon light.
But her lovely eyes see only the heron’s nest.
In the lamp’s reflection, she takes a slanting jade pin from her hair.
And puts out the red flame to save a flying moth.

 

春怨     Spring Sorrow

金昌绪 (Jin Chang Xu, Tang Dynasty)

打起黄莺儿，beaten rise yellow oriole son
莫教枝上啼。no let branch on crying
啼时惊妾梦，crying time startle my dream
不得到辽西.   not can arrive Liao west

Translation:

Throw a rock! Chase that oriole away.
Don’t let it sit on the branch making noise
Its singing startled me out of my dream
And now I’ll never get to my husband in West Liao.

 

Translation notes:

Both Liu Fang Ping and Zhang Gu’s poems delve into the grievances experienced by ladies in the Palace. In Liu’s poem, the phrase “golden chamber” derived from a famous ancient Chinese anecdote about Emperor Wu of Han, who was a brilliant and ambitious emperor but also a womanizer. His mother didn’t have high court status. Therefore, when Emperor Wu of Han was still a young prince, she arranged a marriage between her son and his cousin. The prince said that he would build her a golden chamber. The story had a miserable ending —eventually, the emperor got tired of his wife and divorced her, partially due to her inability to bear him a legitimate heir. By employing the term “golden chamber” in the poem, Liu implies that the court lady depicted was likely once a favorite of the emperor but eventually fell out of favor.

In Zhang’s poem, the discussion of a court lady’s sorrow is more implicit. By depicting the lady seeing only a heron’s nest and her subsequent action of rescuing a flying moth, Zhang effectively conveys the profound loneliness and yearning for home the woman experiences.

Jin’s poem centers around the grievances of a woman whose husband is engaged in a distant frontier battle, thousands of miles away. In the final sentence, we took a small liberty by adding the phrase “her husband” in reference to the woman’s desire to reunite with her husband in West Liao in her dream, although this phrase does not appear in the original poem. We believe that adding this phrase to our translation provides greater clarity for American readers.

采莲曲    Lotus Picking Song

汉代 （Han Dynasty)

江南可采莲，river south can pick lotus
莲叶何田田，lotus leaf how field field
鱼戏莲叶间。fish play lotus leaves among
鱼戏莲叶东，fish play lotus leaves east
鱼戏莲叶西，fish play lotus leaves west
鱼戏莲叶南，fish play lotus leaves south
鱼戏莲叶北。fish play lotus leaves north

 

Translation:

We pick lotus south of the Yangtze
Lotus leaves so fresh and so green.
fish play among the lotus leaves
fish play in the leaves to the east
fish play in the leaves to the west
fish play in the leaves to the south
fish play in the leaves to the north.

 

Translation Notes:

This is a folk poem that was popular in the Han dynasty (202 BCE to 9 ACE). It was sung as a gentle metaphor for the relations between the sexes, with the men singing one line, and the women singing the next line. “South of the river” means south of the Yangtze, which is a common way of referring to the southern part of the nation. This folk poem was adapted as one of the songs sung by an emperor’s concubine in a Chinese television series “Empresses in the Palace”. The concubine won the emperor’s favor with her singing. The song could be found here.

There have been several instances in Chinese history when multiple members of the same family became renowned for their poetry. One such instance was with the Cao clan during the Three Kingdoms period (220 ACE to 280 ACE). The brilliant warlord Cao Cao, together with his two sons, Cao Pi and Cao Zhi, all wrote poems that are still read and studied today. The four poems that follow were written by Cao Cao’s two sons, Cao Pi and Cao Zhi. Though the two princes are brothers, the styles of their poems are very different from each other.

 

白马篇  On the White Horse

(魏）曹植 （Author: Cao Zhi, 3rd Century)

白马饰金羁，white horse decorate gold bridle
连翩西北驰。connect fly fast west north ride
借问谁家子？borrow ask who family son
幽并游侠儿。You Bin travel chivalrous person
少小去乡邑，young little leave hometown city
扬声沙漠垂。raise reputation sand desert frontier
宿昔秉良弓，night morning hold good bow
楛矢何参差！beadtree/china-berry arrow how fringe difference
控弦破左的，control bowstring break left archery target
右发摧月支。right release destroy archery target
仰手接飞猱，upward hand shoot flying monkey
俯身散马蹄。bow down body scatter horse hoof
狡捷过猴猿，cunning agile surpass monkey
勇剽若豹螭。brave swift similar to leopard hornless dragon

边城多警急，frontier city many alarm hasty
虏骑数迁移。tribeman horse rider several times shift change
羽檄从北来，feather exhortation from north come
厉马登高堤。rein horse climb high hill
长驱蹈匈奴，long ride step on Xiongnu
左顾陵鲜卑。left look overpower Xianbei
弃身锋刃端，discard body edge knift front
性命安可怀？nature life how can think of
父母且不顾，father mother yet no take care
何言子与妻？how say son and wife
名编壮士籍，name compile strong person roll
不得中顾私。no can middle/heart think of private matters
捐躯赴国难，donate body go nation calamity
视死忽如归. look at death suddenly similar to return

Translation:

A white horse with a gold bridle
Soared like a bird into the Northwest.
I begged to know where the rider had come from.
He was a hero from You Bin.
When he was young, he left his hometown,
And made his reputation in the desert frontier.
Night and day he carried his good bow
With china-berry and bead tree arrows, short and long,
He could hit his target shooting left handed on horseback,
Shooting right handed, he could also pierce through it.
Shooting upward without stop, he could hit a flying monkey
Aiming his bow at the ground, he could destroy a horse hoof target.
More agile and cunning than a monkey,
As brave and as fierce as a leopard or mountain demon.

In this frontier city there are many sudden alarms
Urgent military messages come from the North,
While tribesmen attack from all directions.
He races up a steep hill
One long ride and he dominates the Xiongnu
Then he looks to his left and vanquishes the Xianbei
He lives on the knife-edge of danger
How can he think of his own well being?
He cares little for his mother and father,
Even less for his wife and child.
With his name on the roll of great men
He has no time for private matters
He sacrifices his body to save the nation
And sees his own death as a sweet homecoming.

 

七步诗    Seven Steps Poem

煮豆持作羹，cook/boil beans use make soup
漉豉以为汁。filter pulse use become juice
萁在釜下燃，beanstalks at pot under burn
豆在釜中泣。beans at pot inside cry
本自同根生，originally from same root born
相煎何太急？ each other fry why too much hastily

Translation:

Beans are boiled to make soup
In their own fermented broth
Beanstalks burn beneath the pot
Beans inside the pot cry out
We were born from the same stalk
why so quick to incinerate me?

 

杂诗二首    Two Pieces of Miscellaneous Poems

(魏）曹丕 （Author: Cao Pi, 3rd century)

其一 Number One

漫漫秋夜长，overflow overflow autumn night long
烈烈北风凉。wind blowing sound north wind cold
展转不能寐，toss toss no can sleep
披衣起彷徨。put on clothes get up wander
彷徨忽已久，wander suddenly already long
白露沾我裳。white dew moisten my clothes
俯视清水波，look down see clear water ripple
仰看明月光。look up see bright moon light

天汉回西流，milky way return west flow
三五正纵横。three five at the time vertical horizontal
草虫鸣何悲，grass insect cry how sorrow
孤雁独南翔。solitary goose alone south fly
郁郁多悲思，sad sad many sorrow thoughts
绵绵思故乡。continuous think of past village
愿飞安得翼，wish fly how get wing
欲济河无梁。desire to cross river no bridge
向风长叹息, face wind long sigh rest
断绝我中肠。break cut off I middle bowel

 

Translation:

Long, long the autumn night,
Howling, howling the cold north wind.
Restless, turning, unable to sleep
I rise and get dressed, unsure of what to do.

In my confusion, I suddenly realize
That my clothes are damp with white dew.
I look down: the clear water ripples
I look up: the bright moon shines

The whole star system is flowing back to the west.
But three stars still intersect five, forming a cross.
Insects in the grass make mournful cries.
All alone, a goose journeys south.

I have so many sad thoughts,
Longing without stop for my home.
I want to fly, but have no wings
I want to cross the river, but have no bridge.

Facing the wind, I sigh,
My bowels twisting with grief.

 

其二 Number Two

西北有浮云，west north have floating cloud
亭亭如车盖。towering towering like carriage cover/top
惜哉时不遇，pity alas time no meet
适与飘风会。suitable coincidentally float wind meet
吹我东南行，blow I east south go
行行至吴会。go go arrive Wu Kuai
吴会非我乡，Wu Kuai no my hometown
安能久留滞。how can long stay remain/stagnant
弃置勿复陈，discard put no again say
客子常畏人。 guest person often afraid people

 

Translation:

A cloud floats in the northwest,
High above me like a carriage top.
What a pity it came at the wrong time
And was blown away by the north wind.

I was blown southeast,
Blown all the way to Wu Kai.
This place is not my home.
How long will I be trapped here?

Even if I put aside my sadness,
A stranger has reason to fear the townspeople.

 

Translation Notes:

Cao Pi was the eldest son of the ambitious and talented warlord Cao Cao, and Cao Zhi was Cao Cao’s third son. Cao Cao became very powerful by the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and for years it was unclear whom he would appoint as his heir. Cao Zhi’s poetic talents, made him Cao Cao’s favorite son at one point. However, Cao Zhi was also a heavy drinker and sometimes behaved recklessly. He eventually disappointed Cao Cao, and his father made Cao Pi as his heir apparent instead.

After Cao Cao passed away, Cao Pi become the new king, and he exiled Cao Zhi to the countryside. Legend has it that Cao Pi once summoned his younger brother to court, forcing him to write a poem about brotherhood and threatening to execute him if he couldn’t do it in the time it took him to walk seven steps. That is why the title of Cao Zhi’s poem is “Seven Steps Poem”. However, historians have questioned the authenticity of this story, pointing out that Cao Pi had a million other ways to murder his younger brother if he wanted to. It would not have been wise for Cao Pi to challenge his talented younger brother by forcing him to write a poem.

Though both princes were famed for their poetry, the style of their poems is very different. Cao Pi was the one in power. Interestingly, in the two poems we translated, he put himself in a frail, insecure and homesick traveler’s shoes. By contrast, the poem “On the White Horse”, written by Cao Zhi, is very aggressive and warlike. Yet the young prince who idolized war heroes is not known for his military skills.