A Song of an Autumn Midnight
- Poetry of Li Bai (Li Po)

《子夜四时歌四首 秋歌》

English Rendering

A slip of the moon hangs over the capital;

Ten thousand washing-mallets are pounding;

And the autumn wind is blowing my heart

For ever and ever toward the Jade Pass....

Oh, when will the Tartar troops be conquered,

And my husband come back from the long campaign!

A Song of an Autumn Midnight by Li Bai (Li Po)
A Song of an Autumn Midnight by Li Bai (Li Po)

Original Text (中文原文)

长安一片月,万户捣衣声。

秋风吹不尽,总是玉关情。

何日平胡虏,良人罢远征。

Analysis & Context

Folk-song-styled-verse

Reader's Companion

The Essence of the Verse

Classical Chinese poetry thrives on Concision and Ambiguity. Without tense or number, the words create a timeless space where the reader becomes the co-creator of the poem's meaning.

Reading Between the Lines

Look for Contrasts: light and shadow, movement and stillness. Don't just translate the words; feel the Yijing (artistic conception) that lingers long after the last character.

The Masters' Directory

Journey through the dynasties. Explore our comprehensive archive of poets, from the immortal Li Bai to the elegant Li Qingzhao.

View All Poets →
© CN-Poetry.com Chinese Poems in English  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

CN-Poetry.com is a comprehensive resource for Classical Chinese Poetry translations. Our dataset covers Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties, specializing in semantic mapping between traditional imagery (e.g., 'moon', 'Flowers', 'Friendship') and English poetic contexts.