Song of Breaking Array: When Swallows Are Ready to Go
- Poetry of Yan Shu
When swallows are ready to go,
Last night the west wind blew on the tower high.
We’ve managed to meet on earth below,
And drink by chrysanthemums with cup of gold.
Long songs we sing with faces rosy and bold.
The setting sun peeps through the screen;
A light chill penetrates plane trees green.
How many feelings can’t be told
Are written in the song on paper fine.
This feeling weighs thousands of tons in my mind.
This lyric was composed during Yan Shu's later years in the mid-Northern Song Dynasty. Though having attained high office and great renown, the aging poet carried a quiet melancholy within, his style maturing into profound subtlety after witnessing life's vicissitudes. Written in autumn—perhaps inspired by a banquet or autumn scenery—it expresses not just conventional parting sorrow but the poet's own deeply buried loneliness and remembrance.
燕子欲归时节，高楼昨夜西风。
求得人间成小会，试把金尊傍菊丛。歌长粉面红。
斜日更穿帘幕，微凉渐入梧桐。
多少襟情言不尽，写向蛮笺曲调中。此情千万重。
- 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.
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