The River All Red
- Poetry of Yue Fei

《满江红》

- Last updated: 2023-12-21 23:30:35

The River All Red by Yue Fei
中文原文

怒发冲冠，凭栏处、潇潇雨歇。

抬望眼、仰天长啸，壮怀激烈。

三十功名尘与土，八千里路云和月。

莫等闲，白了少年头，空悲切。


靖康耻，犹未雪；臣子恨，何时灭。

驾长车,踏破贺兰山缺。

壮志饥餐胡虏肉，笑谈渴饮匈奴血。

待从头、收拾旧山河，朝天阙。

English Translation

By the railing I stand,

Showers have stopped,

I bristle with wrath, my hair uncaging.

My eyes towards the sky,

To arms! Long I cry,

To war, for a heavenly cause! I’m raging.

My decade of deeds, as dust I deem, short of the final victory,

O’er thousands of miles, day or night, been in battle engaging.

So take it to heart, get set!

Lest, in vain, we’ll regret,

Turned grey, our youthful heads, on aging.


Held captive still, our sovereigns,

Unavenged, this burning shame;

When? Why now is the hour

To burn out our vengeful flame.

O charge, you columns of chariots!

Crash that gap at Helan-Shan! Crush it in heaven’s name!

In hunger we eat their body, in thirst, drink their blood!

We’ll so boast of our bravery, as if them tartars were game.

All over again, in rally we stand:

Our homeland of old, to recapture,

Our emperor, “All hail!” to acclaim.

Yue Fei (1103-1141)was a famous patriotic general who repelled the Jurchen invasion in order to recapture the lost thousand-mile land.

This well-known lyric has an inspiriting and invigorating influence on the Chinese people.

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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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