Poems by Du Fu
translated by Ad Blankestijn
(1) Spring View
The nation ruined, hills and streams remain,a city in spring, grass and trees deep.
Touched by the times, flowers shed tears,
hating separation, birds alarm the heart.
Beacon fires three months on end,
a letter from home worth ten thousand in gold.
White hairs, thin because of scratching,
soon too few to hold a cap pin.
春望
國破山河在, 城春草木深。
感時花濺淚, 恨別鳥驚心。
烽火連三月, 家書抵萬金。
白頭搔更短, 渾欲不勝簪。
(2) Moonlit Night
she alone watches from her chamber.
who don't know yet to remember Changan.
Fragrant mists - her coils of hair damp,
a clear luster - her jade-white arms cold.
When will we lean near the light mosquito net,
both shone upon, our tear stains dried?
月夜
今夜鄜州月, 閨中只獨看。
遙憐小兒女, 未解憶長安。
香霧雲鬟濕, 清輝玉臂寒。
何時倚虛幌, 雙照淚痕乾。
(3) Facing the Snow
Weeping over the war - many fresh ghosts,reciting in sorrow, one old man alone.
Tumultuous clouds descend in the twilight,
snowflakes dance fiercely through the storm.
Ladle tossed aside, no wine in the cup,
the brazier still smolders with a reddish glow.
News has been cut off from so many prefectures,
I sit in sorrow, writing in the air.
對雪
戰哭多新鬼, 愁吟獨老翁。
亂雲低薄暮, 急雪舞迴風。
瓢棄樽無綠, 爐存火似紅。
數州消息斷, 愁坐正書空。
(4) Delighting in rain on a spring night
With the wind it stealthily enters the night,
and moistens the crops, making no sound.
Above the paths, the clouds are black,
only on the river boats, the fires shine bright.
When I look at daybreak how wet the red is,
the flowers will be heavy in Brocade City.
春夜喜雨
好雨知時節，當春乃發生。
隨風潛入夜，潤物細無聲。
野徑雲倶黑，江船火獨明。
曉看紅濕處，花重錦官城。
(5) Weary at Night
The coolness of the bamboos invades my bed,the moon above the field fills the yard's corner.
The heavy dew forms tiny drops,
sparse stars suddenly appear and disappear.
Fireflies in the darkness light up,
and birds on the water call to each other.
The whole world is at war.
My sorrows are in vain - the clear night passes.
倦夜
竹涼侵臥內, 野月滿庭隅。
重露成涓滴, 稀星乍有無。
暗飛螢自照, 水宿鳥相呼。
萬事干戈裏, 空悲清夜徂
(6) Lone Goose
A goose alone - she neither drinks nor eats,while flying, she calls out to the flock.
Who thinks of her, that single shadow,
lost in ten thousand folds of clouds?
I keep gazing, as if I still can see her,
many mournful cries, as if I still can hear her.
The crows in the wilderness pay it no heed,
indifferently they caw and squawk wildly.
孤雁
孤雁不飲啄,
飛鳴聲念群。
誰憐一片影,
相失萬重雲。
望盡似猶見,
哀多如更聞。
野鴉無意緒,
鳴噪自紛紛。
(7）Writing of My Feelings Traveling by Night
a high mast - a lonely boat at night.
The stars descend, the flat field is wide
the moon is rising, the Great River flows on.
I must quit my post because I'm sick and old.
What do I look like, prey to wind and waves?
Between heaven and earth, a single seagull.
旅夜書懷
細草微風岸, 危檣獨夜舟。
星垂平野闊, 月湧大江流。
名豈文章著, 官應老病休。
飄零何所似, 天地一沙鷗。
[Album of 12 leaves illustrating Du Fu's poems.
By Wang Shimin (1592-1680), Qing dynasty. Dated 1666.]
Du Fu (712–770) is always mentioned in the same breath as Wang Wei and Li Bai as one of the three most important poets of the Tang Dynasty. In the West, however, Du Fu's popularity has lagged behind that of Wang Wei and Li Bai, perhaps because his work is less accessible than the nature poetry of the first or the ecstatic hymns to wine and the moon of the second. Du Fu's themes are distinctly Confucian. His poems from the years after An Lushan's rebellion bear testimony to the horrors of military violence and the hardships that he and his wife and children suffered. Above all, they express Du Fu's despair at not being allowed to contribute to the restoration of peace and order, and express a sense of total abandonment in a degenerate world.
An Lushan (703–757) was a Tang dynasty general of Sogdian origin. After years of preparation, in 755 he rebelled against the emperor Xuanzong and founded his own dynasty. It took seven years before the rebellion was quelled. The death toll was enormous and the splendor of the Tang empire - although the son of Xuanzong, Suzhong - returned to power, was lost. Du Fu's poetry is a primary source of information about the massive upheavals of the period.
After fleeing Changan in 757, Du Fu held a subordinate position at the imperial court. From 759 on, he spent several years in southwestern Sichuan as an advisor to the governor of the province. At that time he lived with his wife and children in a village just outside the provincial capital Chengdu and these years probably were the happiest of his life. Du Fu spent his last years again wandering from city to city in Sichuan, Hubei and Hunan, looking for a new patron.
Du Fu's poetry was hugely influential in both Chinese and Japanese literary culture. Nearly fifteen hundred poems have been preserved. He has been dubbed the "Poet-Historian" by Chinese critics.
[Tang Warriors (Sancai Tomb Guards)]
Notes
Poem 1: This is Du Fu's most famous poem about the national disaster of the rebellion. When reading the last line, it should be remembered that until the conquest of China by the Manchus in 1644, Chinese men wore their long hair in a bun under a cap (which again was a token of being a government official). This poem was written when Du Fu was prisoner of the rebels in Changan, from autumn 756 to spring 757
Poem 2: This one of the most famous love poems from Chinese literature. It stems from the same period as the first poem. While himself a prisoner in Changan, Du Fu imagines how in a different city his wife and children are spending the autumn evening. The comparison with the moon (after all, considered as the residence of a beautiful fairy) was very old in Chinese poetry. The mosquito net mentioned in the last couplet was hung like a tent above the bed - so it is indicative of the longed-for intimacy between Du Fu and his wife.
Poem 3: Also the third poem was written in Changan during 756-57.
Poem 4: Written in the happy years 759-762 when Du Fu lived with his family in a cottage in the outskirts of Chengdu (the "Brocade City").
Poem 5: Also written in Chengdu, but in 764, after Du Fu had briefly left the city to escape a rebellion (Du Fu would leave again in 765).
Poem 6: No comment.
Poem 7: In his last years, Du Fu often traveled by boat along the Yangzi River, called the Great River. This poem was written in the spring of 768.
Other translations:
Owen, Stephen [translator & editor], Warner, Ding Xiang [editor], Kroll, Paul [editor] (2016). The Poetry of Du Fu. De Gruyter Mouton.
Cooper, Arthur (translator); (1986). Li Po and Tu Fu: Poems. Viking Press.
Hawkes, David; (2016). A Little Primer of Tu Fu. New York Review Books, revised ed.
Hinton, David (translator); (2019). The selected poems of Tu Fu. New York: New Directions Publishing
Hung, William; (1952). Tu Fu: China's Greatest Poet. Harvard University Press.
Lyric Poetry Around the World Index