Midnight Vigil in West Garden
- Poetry of Liu Zongyuan
《中夜起望西园值月上》
English Translation
I wake to dripping dew's clear knell,
Open doors to west garden's spell.
Cold moon climbs the eastern height,
Through sparse bamboo shafts spills light.
Distant stone springs sing more clear,
Mountain birds cry—then disappear.
Leaning on pillars till dawn's hue,
What can silence say to you?
Composed in 810 during Liu Zongyuan's sixth year of exile in Yongzhou, this poem crystallizes the paradox of his "Fool's Stream Hermitage"—a carefully constructed rural idyll that fails to soothe political anguish. Written after midnight insomnia, the work documents a scholar-official's confrontation with nature's indifferent beauty and his own irrelevance to the imperial center.
中文原文( Chinese )
觉闻繁露坠，开户临西园。
寒月上东岭，泠泠疏竹根。
石泉远逾响，山鸟时一喧。
倚楹遂至旦，寂寞将何言。
Pre： Villager's Song I
- 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.