259. A Night Mooring by Maple Bridge | Zhang Ji
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
月落乌啼霜满天，江枫渔火对愁眠。
English translation
The moon sets, crows call, and frost seems to fill the sky; riverside maples and fishing-boat lights face a traveler kept awake by sorrow.
The frost does not literally fill the heavens; the deep cold of night seems to spread everywhere. To lie facing sorrow means the traveler lies down with his grief before him, the maples and boat lamps alongside, unable to sleep.
Original Chinese text
姑苏城外寒山寺，夜半钟声到客船。
English translation
Beyond the walls of Gusu, old Suzhou, stands Cold Mountain Temple; at midnight its bell reaches the traveler's moored boat.
The temple is named for the Tang monk Hanshan, who is said to have lived there. In the dead of night the bell rings out with special clarity, crossing the water to the boat and magnifying the sorrow of a man who cannot sleep.
赏析 · Commentary
一幅由声音组成的夜景 · A Night Scene Built from Sounds
落月、啼乌、寒霜、江枫、渔火、钟声，几乎每一样都带着声音或冷意。诗人没有说明自己为何发愁，只把旅夜中可闻可见的景物依次摆开，它们却共同指向一个睡不着的人。到末句钟声传来，外面的寂静与内心的不平静同时抵达船上。
Setting moon, crying crow, frost, river maples, fishing lights, temple bell—almost every element carries sound or cold. The poet never explains his sorrow. He simply sets out, one after another, the things that can be heard and seen on a night of travel, and together they point to one person who cannot sleep. When the bell arrives in the closing line, the stillness outside and the unrest within reach the boat at the same moment.
钟声为什么落在半夜 · Why the Bell Comes at Midnight
寒山寺的钟声在诗里不只是报时。夜深人静，声音传得远，客船又停在水边，于是一记钟响同时告诉读者三件事：夜已经很深，寺离此地不远，船上的人还醒着。景物没有变化，愁绪却在钟声里被听见。
The temple bell is more than a time signal. At dead of night sound travels far, and the boat lies at the water's edge, so a single stroke tells the reader three things at once: the hour is late, the temple stands within hearing, and the traveler is still awake. Nothing in the scenery changes, yet the sorrow becomes audible in the bell.