150. A Letter from the Frontier | Zhang Qiao
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
调角断清秋，征人倚戍楼。
English translation
The blowing of the horn cuts across the clear autumn air; the frontier soldier leans on the garrison tower.
"Tuning the horn" means blowing the horn; "cuts" means cuts across. The first line writes sound, the second a man; neither adds anything beyond the action.
Original Chinese text
春风对青冢，白日落梁州。
English translation
Spring wind faces the green tomb; the white sun sets over Liangzhou.
"Green tomb" is Zhaojun's grave; Liangzhou is in southern Shaanxi. The first line writes history, the second the present, one imagined and one real.
Original Chinese text
大漠无兵阻，穷边有客游。
English translation
On the great desert no troops block the way; at the farthest frontier travellers come and go.
"No troops blocking" is the look of peace; "travellers come" is the look of passage. Together the two lines write the frontier's peace.
Original Chinese text
蕃情似此水，长愿向南流。
English translation
The frontier people's feelings are like the water of this river, ever wishing to flow south.
'Frontier feeling' refers to the sentiments of frontier peoples such as the Tibetans. 'Flowing south' is a metaphor for turning back toward the Central Plain. The closing line expresses a hope for peace.
赏析 · Commentary
写边塞的和平景象 · Writing a Frontier at Peace
边塞诗大多写征战或思乡，这首写的是和平：号角还在吹，但大漠无兵阻，旅客能通行，诗人甚至希望边地民族的心像河水一样流向中原。张乔选的题目很特别——用边塞的题材写边塞的安宁。这类诗在唐代不多，因为读者习惯边塞的血与雪，写安宁反而需要更多具体的支撑。
Frontier poems mostly write campaigns or homesickness; this one writes peace: the horn still sounds, but there are no troops barring the desert, travellers come and go, and the poet even hopes the frontier peoples' hearts flow south like the river. Zhang Qiao's subject is unusual — using frontier material to write frontier calm. Such poems are rare in the Tang, since readers expect blood and snow on the frontier and calm needs more concrete support.
「青冢」的作用 · What "Green Tomb" Is Doing
第二联上句写昭君墓，下句写梁州的落日。昭君是历史上汉与匈奴和亲的象征，把她和落日的边地并列，等于用一段旧事为眼前的和平作注：这条路曾经要靠和亲维持，如今有客可游。张乔没有展开议论，只放了一个地名，历史的分量就压进来了。
The second couplet's first half is Zhaojun's grave, the second the setting sun at Liangzhou. Zhaojun is the historical emblem of marriage alliances between Han and the Xiongnu, and setting her beside a frontier sunset comments on the present peace with an old story: this road once depended on a marriage alliance, and now travellers walk it. Zhang Qiao argues nothing, sets down one place name, and the weight of history presses in.
末句的比喻 · The Figure in the Last Line
「蕃情似此水，长愿向南流」把政治愿望写成一个自然现象：水往南流是不需要理由的，所以边境归向中原也应该如此。张乔用「长愿」表明这是一种期待而不是已有的事实。写和平的诗，这么收既不乐观过头，也说清了立场。
"Barbarian feeling like this water, always wishing to flow south" turns a political hope into a natural fact: water flows south for no reason, so frontier allegiance to the centre should follow the same course. The word "always wishing" marks it as an expectation and not an accomplished fact. For a poem on peace, this close is neither over-optimistic nor vague about where the poet stands.