Among the three hundred Tang poems, there is still an ancient love poem that is very sad.
Tonight in Yanzhou, I can only watch it alone in my boudoir. I pity my children from afar, but I still remember Chang'an.
The fragrant mist and clouds make the servant girl wet, and the clear jade arms are cold. When do I lean on Xuguo, my tears will dry when I shine with my eyes.
The title of this ancient poem is "Moonlight Night". It is one of the few poems by Du Fu that expresses love, and it was written to his wife. At that time, due to the Anshi Rebellion, Du Fu and his family were forced to separate. His wife was in Yanzhou, in today's Yan'an, Shaanxi Province, while Du Fu was under house arrest in Chang'an.
Regarding the war, Du Fu wrote many impressive poems, expressing the scholar-official class's disgust for the war. He often starts from the perspective of ordinary people to understand the suffering caused by war, creating a living and true history. What's even more valuable is that Du Fu incorporated his own personal experience into these poems, which makes these poems more charming and touching. And this song "Moonlight Night" is one of the best.
"Tonight the moon in Yanzhou is watched alone in the boudoir." The author is obviously in Chang'an missing his wife who is far away in Yanzhou, but these two sentences are writing that the wife in Yanzhou is missing herself. This is a very unique way of expression. In this ancient poem, it expresses the deep love between husband and wife. The author was in Chang'an and saw a bright moon, and imagined that his wife in the distance was also looking at a bright moon. The author looks at the bright moon and misses his wife, and he also imagines his wife looking at the moon and missing him.
"I pity my children from afar, but I still remember Chang'an without understanding". These two sentences still describe the situation of my wife missing me. Du Fu stayed in Chang'an for a long time, and he and his wife went through many difficulties in life. After all, Du Fu was very unhappy at that time, suffering from poverty and illness, but the two supported each other, enjoyed themselves in hardship, and could live a comfortable life. But now, the distance between the two people is so far, there is no way to comfort each other, even if there are children surrounding the wife, what can they do? It does not alleviate the wife's longing for Du Fu in Chang'an.
"The fragrant mist and clouds make the servant girl wet, and the clear jade is cold on the arms." These two sentences are also the author's imagination, imagining how his wife misses him at home. After all, it was already autumn and the weather was already very cold at night. My wife was looking at the moon and missing Du Fu at home, so her hair and shoulders would inevitably get wet with dew. These two sentences describe the image of his wife who is worried and sleepless at night. They also describe Du Fu's love for his wife and express Du Fu's guilt for his wife. Although they are only two sentences of image description, they highlight Du Fu's love for his wife. Silent love for his wife.
"Whenever I lean on the false cover, my tears will dry up under the double light." The last two sentences express the author's expectations. Now that we are separated, we miss each other and are in chaos. We are even more eager to stay together for the rest of our lives. When can the two of us be reunited and sit together and admire the moon, instead of admiring the moon in separate places like now?
Among Du Fu's poems, this ancient poem is very special. In the poems we have read of him in the past, he was concerned about the common people in the world and thought about the lives of the common people everywhere, so he was known as the Saint of Poetry. But in this ancient poem, we see the tenderness in Du Fu's heart. His love for his wife is also lingering and pathos, and her longing for their children is also sincere.
Du Fu’s heart not only contains the people of the world, but also his own relatives and his own family.