ChineseStudy

280. Autumn Night | Du Mu

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Text

English translation

Silver candlelight and autumn glow chill the painted screen; with a light silk fan she catches the drifting fireflies.

Some editions read red candles, but most current texts have silver. Chilly describes both the screen's cool surface and the cold of the autumn night. The light silk fan is a round fan of thin gauze; catching drifting fireflies shows her whiling away the night in idle play—her motions nimble, her situation lonely.

On the palace steps the night air is as cool as water; she sits and watches the Herd-Boy and Weaver-Girl stars.

The heavenly steps are the stone stairs of the palace, marking her as a palace woman. Cool as water turns a feeling into a visible image and shows how late it is. The Herd-Boy and Weaver-Girl are lovers parted by the Milky Way; her long gaze holds both loneliness and longing. (One edition reads lying rather than sitting.)

赏析 · Commentary

一个小动作撑起一个长夜 · One Small Gesture Holds a Long Night

扑流萤是夏秋之际宫女常有的消遣，动作轻，时间却长。诗人不写她为何不睡，只写她扑萤、看星，读者便知道这个夜很难熬。热闹的萤火与清冷的烛光、石阶对照，孤独不必点明。

Catching fireflies was a common pastime for palace women between summer and autumn: the motion is light, but the hours are long. The poet never says why she cannot sleep, only shows her chasing fireflies and watching stars, and the reader understands how hard the night is to endure. The lively fireflies set against the cold candlelight and the stone steps make the loneliness plain without naming it.

为什么望的是牵牛织女 · Why She Watches the Herd-Boy and Weaver-Girl

天上的牵牛织女一年才能相会一次，却终究还有个可盼的人；深宫里的女子连这样的人事也未必有。末句不写怨，只写“看”，把她的心思交给了两颗星。杜牧把宫怨收在一段安静的动作里，余味很长。

The Herd-Boy and Weaver-Girl meet only once a year, yet they still have someone to long for; a woman deep in the palace may not even have that. The closing line shows no complaint, only looking, entrusting her thoughts to two stars. Du Mu folds the palace lament into one quiet gesture, and the aftertaste is long.

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