Eastern Hamlet, Northern Slope
- Poetry of Du Fu
Bandits plague our fragile lives with dread;
Taxes strip the foreign poor till bled.
An empty village—only birds take flight;
At sunset, not a soul in fading light.
Through ravines I walk, the wind whips my face;
'Neath pines I watch dew drip with silent grace.
I turn my graying head toward distant peaks;
On battlefields, the yellow dust still speaks.
This work was composed in the autumn of 767 CE, the second year of the Dali era under Emperor Daizong, while Du Fu was residing in the Dongtun area of Kuizhou (present-day Fengjie, Chongqing). The title "Northern Hollow" refers to the northern slopes of the mountainous region. Although the An Lushan Rebellion had been quelled, the land of Shu was still riven by warlord conflicts and plagued by marauding deserters. Coupled with the relentless exactions of the authorities, the populace had nearly all fled or perished. Venturing deep into the wild hills, the poet witnessed the desolate spectacle of emptied villages and abandoned fields. Employing a descriptive technique approaching pure reportage, he recorded this landscape of ruin wrought jointly by war and tyranny. Though a mere forty characters in length, the poem functions like a tightly framed close-up on the era's open wound, concentrating within it the most deeply sorrowful and austere critical gaze of Du Fu's later years.
盗贼浮生困，诛求异俗贫。空村惟见鸟，落日未逢人。
步壑风吹面，看松露滴身。远山回白首，战地有黄尘。
- Why Chinese poems is so special?
- The most distinctive features of Chinese poetry are: concision- many poems are only four lines, and few are much longer than eight; ambiguity- number, tense and parts of speech are often undetermined, creating particularly rich interpretative possibilities; and structure- most poems follow quite strict formal patterns which have beauty in themselves as well as highlighting meaningful contrasts.
- How to read a Chinese poem?
- Like an English poem, but more so. Everything is there for a reason, so try to find that reason. Think about all the possible connotations, and be aware of the different possibilities of number and tense. Look for contrasts: within lines, between the lines of each couplet and between successive couplets. Above all, don't worry about what the poet meant- find your meaning.
- Eastern Hamlet, Northern Slope
- My Neighbor South
- By Waterside I
- Waves Sifting Sand I
- Lament for Spring II
- At Chan-zhì Temple, Yangzhou