41. Wu Songs of Ziye: The Autumn Song

A poem by Li Bai, translated by Hyun Woo Kim, and an announcement

Changan, a shard of the moon;

Every house, sounds of beating clothes.

The autumn winds blow, never running out;

All are feelings towards the Gateway Yu.

When will the barbarians be quelled, and

My beloved finish his conquest?

「子夜吳歌-秋歌」

長安一片月

萬戶擣衣聲

秋風吹不盡

總是玉關情

何日平胡虜

良人罷遠征

From Hyun Woo:

Today’s poem is the most famous among Li Bai’s Wu Songs of Ziye, if not one of the best-known of all his works. It is a moonlit night in Changan (pronounced Chang-an), the capital of Tang. One can hear “sounds of beating clothes” from “every house” here. “Beating” clothes was a method of smoothing them, like ironing, which was a job for women. The “autumn winds” will deliver the sounds afar, all the “feelings towards the Gateway Yu”, where one had to pass to reach the western frontier of the Tang Empire. Then we hear a woman’s voice: “When will all the barbarians be quelled, and/My beloved finish his conquest?”

My opinion is that the Autumn Song would have been a better poem without the last two lines. Li Bai had to write six lines to follow the specific yuefu style of Wu Song of Ziye though . (Don’t remember what yuefu is? Read the newsletter from November again.) The last two lines do help readers understand what the poem is about more easily, but a keen reader could have figured it out already from the mentioning of the “Gateway Yu” and that the theme of Wu Songs of Ziye is women missing their lovers.

Announcement:

The design for the new Classical Chinese poetry postcard is here! Those who use Substack Notes or Chat might have seen it already, but I am sharing it again in case you are reading my newsletters only.

I took the photo of a pond on a snowy day back in Latvia, and the lines belong to Nalan Xingde. If you are somewhat used to Chinese culture, you may think the poet’s name does not sound like an “ordinary” Chinese name. You are right. It is because Nalan Xingde was a Manchu, not a Han. (Han is the largest ethnic group in China.) In the poem, he praises the snow, which he calls “snow-flower”. He says it is not because of its visible beauty that he loves snow. Rather, he loves it since it is “not a richly valued flower of the vulgar world.”

I am so glad that I will send postcards with such beautiful lines in the coming January. I have mentioned this already many times, but please remember that you have to become a paid subscriber by December 31st if you want to receive a postcard. I hope my postcard will brighten up your day and your new year!

-Hyun Woo

If you enjoyed my work, you can buy me a cup of tea. I am not a coffee person, by the way.