301. Beyond the Frontier | Wang Changling
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
秦时明月汉时关，万里长征人未还。
English translation
The moon of Qin, the passes of Han; the men on the ten-thousand-li campaign have not come home.
The moon of Qin, the passes of Han is interlocking phrasing: the moon and the frontier passes have endured since Qin and Han, and the border trouble has never ceased since ancient times. The ten-thousand-li campaign tells the vast distance of the expedition, and the men have not come home that the fighting does not end and the soldiers do not return. The opening line stretches time back to Qin and Han, giving the frontier before him the weight of history. (Wikisource notes a variant in the second line, roughly the conscripted men have not yet come home.)
Original Chinese text
但使龙城飞将在，不教胡马度阴山。
English translation
If only the flying general of Dragon City were still here, the Tartar horses would not be let cross the Yin Mountains.
If only sets the condition. The flying general of Dragon City combines two allusions: Wei Qing's surprise attack on Dragon City and Li Guang's name, the Flying General; it stands for any brave, able commander fit to hold the frontier. Would not be let means would not be allowed. Tartar horses are the cavalry of the northern nomads. The Yin Mountains lie in what is now central Inner Mongolia and were the Han dynasty's natural bulwark against the Xiongnu. Cross is to go over. (The chinese-poetry dataset reads cross with one character; the Gutenberg base text reads a homophone variant; I follow the common reading.)
赏析 · Commentary
一句诗压过千年 · One Line Weighing a Thousand Years
“秦时明月汉时关”把秦汉以来的边患一口气收进七个字里：月亮还是那个月亮，关口还是那处关口，可仗打了一代又一代，人始终回不了家。眼前战事因此有了千年纵深，个人的归期也被拖进漫长的边患之中。
The moon of Qin, the passes of Han gathers the border troubles since Qin and Han into seven characters: the moon is the same moon, the passes the same passes, yet war has been fought generation after generation and the men still never come home. The present campaign therefore gains a thousand years of depth, and each soldier's homecoming is drawn into the long history of frontier war.
把希望寄托在良将 · Hope Pinned on a Good General
后两句由感慨转为愿望：只要还有李广那样的名将，胡马就过不了阴山。话说得斩钉截铁，正说明现实里缺少这样的人。“但使”二字既是期盼，也是失望；对良将的呼唤越急切，对当朝边将的暗讽越明显。
The closing couplet turns from lament to wish: if only a general like Li Guang remained, the Tartar horses could not cross the Yin Mountains. The words are cut-and-dried, which itself shows how such a man is lacking in reality. If only is both longing and disappointment; the more urgent the call for a good general, the clearer the quiet mockery of the frontier commanders of the time.