Guan Shanyue
Tang Dynasty: Li Bai
the bright moon lifts from the Mountain of Heaven, in an infinite haze of cloud and sea.
and the wind, that has come a thousand miles, beats at the Jade Pass battlements.
china marches its men down Baideng Road, while Tartar troops peer across blue waters of the bay.
and since not one battle famous in history sent all its fighters back again.
Garrison the border town, and think of home, with wistful eyes. (Looking at the Border Town: Looking at the Border Color)
and of those tonight in the upper chambers, who toss and sigh and cannot rest.
Translation
A bright moon rises from Qilian Mountain and passes through the vast sea of clouds.
The mighty long wind swept over the Guanshan Mountain in Wan Li, and came to the border where the garrison soldiers were stationed.
In those days, the Han soldiers pointed directly at Baideng Mountain Road, and Tubo coveted a large area of rivers and mountains in Qinghai.
In these places where people fought in the past dynasties, few soldiers survived.
The soldiers on guard are staring at the border town. How sad and sad they look when they look forward to returning home!
When the wives of the soldiers in this high-rise building are sad and sigh, they probably never stop.
"Guan Shanyue" is one of the Yuefu songs in the Han Dynasty, which belongs to the "drum-horn cross-blowing song", and was often sung by the border guards at that time. Li Bai's poem still inherits the ancient Yuefu in content, but its brushwork is unique, and it is innovative and innovative. The poet described the hardships and hardships of ancient border guards, condemned the sufferings brought to the people by unjust wars, so as to insinuate and criticize the militancy of the ruling class in the Tang Dynasty, and showed the theme of opposing the war of aggression.
This poem describes the scenery of the frontier fortress, the experience of garrisoning soldiers, and the pain of homesickness in garrisoning soldiers and thinking about women. The description at the beginning is to render and pave the way for the following, and focuses on the feelings caused by looking at the moon. In the works of a group of poets, the feeling of leaving others and thinking about women is often delicate and too sad, and the realm is often narrow in line with it. But Li Bai used "the bright moon lifts from the Mountain of Heaven, in an infinite haze of cloud and sea. And the wind, that has come a thousand miles, beats at the Jade Pass battlements "Wan Li frontier plug figure triggered this feeling. Only a broad-minded person like Li Bai would write like this. Looking at the whole poem, Li Bai expresses the artistic conception of defending people's homesickness with a vast and profound picture, which is actually the natural expression of the poet's broad mind. If most of Li Bai's poems use "moon", "travel" and "wine" to drain personal resentment, then this poem written by Guan Shanyue shows another sentiment of his concern for people's livelihood and compassion for others. This poem has a broad momentum and far-reaching artistic conception, and it is sad and tragic to read.