Eight Beats of Ganzhou (Liu Yong)

Contents

Text

English translation

Original Chinese text

English translation

I face the steady evening rain sweeping across river and sky, as if it had washed the autumn clear once more. Frost-cold winds grow sharp; passes and waterways lie deserted, and the last light falls upon the tower. Red flowers fade, green leaves thin, and the season’s beauty slowly ebbs. Only the Yangtze keeps flowing east in silence.

Original Chinese text

English translation

I cannot bear to climb high and look afar: home lies so distant, and the wish to return will not be contained. I ask myself why I have stayed away so long. I imagine my beloved gazing from her dressing tower, mistaking one boat after another on the horizon for the vessel bringing me home. How could she know that here, leaning on the rail, I am immersed in this very sorrow?

词句注释 · Notes

上片 · First stanza

上片从暮雨、霜风、关河写到花木衰残,最后以长江东流作对照。自然景物不断变化,江水却持续向前,带出时光难留的感受。

The stanza moves from evening rain and sharp wind to deserted passes and fading plants, then contrasts them with the Yangtze’s steady eastward flow. The landscape’s decline against the river’s persistence evokes time that cannot be held.

下片 · Second stanza

下片由登高望远引出归思,再设想远方佳人等待归舟。结尾将两地相思并置:她误认天际船影,他独倚栏杆凝愁,彼此牵挂却无法相知。

The stanza turns from the distant view to homesickness, then imagines the beloved waiting for his boat. The ending places two acts of longing side by side: she mistakes boats on the horizon for his return, while he stands alone at the rail, unaware to her.

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