Song of Qiupu XIV
- Poetry of Li Bai (Li Po)
The firelight throws a spell on the sky and the land;
The fireball’s red stars mingle with purple smoke.
The flushed lad’s face is lit up by the moon;
His song rises high and moves the cold stream.
This poem is the fourteenth in Li Bai's "Song of Qiupu" series, composed during his later years while traveling in the Qiupu region. As a major copper mining and smelting center in the Tang Dynasty, Qiupu provided Li Bai with a unique subject—he turned his poetic gaze to the smelting labor scene, a topic rarely addressed by previous literati. This work not only depicts a magnificent labor scene but also stands as a masterpiece that positively portrays industrial workers and successfully poeticizes their image in Chinese poetic history.
炉火照天地，红星乱紫烟。
赧郎明月夜，歌曲动寒川。
- 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.