95. Remembering My Younger Brother on a Moonlit Night | Du Fu
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
戍鼓断人行，秋边一雁声。
English translation
The garrison drum cuts off the roads; in the autumn border a single goose cries.
Cut off the roads names the curfew, when passage was barred at night in wartime. The single goose is both an autumn sight and a quiet figure for brothers scattered.
Original Chinese text
露从今夜白，月是故乡明。
English translation
The dew turns white from tonight on; the moon is brightest in my old home.
The dew turning white marks the White Dew solar term and is literal; the moon brightest in my old home is psychological — the moon is the same everywhere, and brighter only in memory. One literal, one inward: these are the poem's famous lines.
Original Chinese text
有弟皆分散，无家问死生。
English translation
I have brothers, all scattered; with no home, how to ask whether they live or die?
Du Fu had four younger brothers, scattered in the war. No home means not merely no house but no place from which word can be sent. The couplet brings the remembering down to a concrete predicament.
Original Chinese text
寄书长不达，况乃未休兵。
English translation
Letters sent long go undelivered, and the fighting has not stopped.
The couplet before says there is no way to ask; this one says letters do not get through either. Two predicaments pile up, and the fighting has not stopped names the cause and closes off hope as well.
赏析 · Commentary
「月是故乡明」为什么是名句 · Why the Moon Is Brightest in My Old Home Endures
这句的好处在于它说的是一件不成立的事，而人人都懂。从天文上说，月亮在哪里都一样明；但人在异乡，总觉得家乡的月亮更亮。杜甫把这个错觉写出来，等于承认了思念的力量——它能让常识失效。更妙的是这句和上句配着：「露从今夜白」是人人共有的节令，「月是故乡明」是只有游子才有的心理。一公共一私人，两句之间的落差就是这首诗的空间。
The merit of this line is that it states something untrue and everyone understands. Astronomically the moon is equally bright everywhere; away from home one always feels it brighter back there. Writing the illusion down is to admit the power of longing, which can suspend common sense. Better still is its pairing: the dew turning white from tonight is a season everyone shares, the moon brightest in my old home a psychology only a wanderer has. One public, one private, and the gap between the lines is the poem's room.
白露这个节气的分量 · The Weight of the White Dew Season
白露是二十四节气之一，约在农历八月，此时天气转凉，夜里水汽凝成白色的露。诗的题目是「月夜忆舍弟」，「露从今夜白」既点明时令，也点明这一夜的分量——从今夜起，秋天真正来了。古人以节气感知时间，写诗常借节气来定季节和情绪。这一句把「秋天到了」和「我想起弟弟」绑在同一刻上，凉意既是天气，也是心情。
White Dew is one of the twenty-four solar terms, around the eighth lunar month, when the air turns cool and night vapor condenses into white dew. The title is remembering my younger brother on a moonlit night, and the dew turning white from tonight on marks both the season and the weight of this night: from tonight, autumn has truly come. The ancients told time by the solar terms, and poems often use them to fix both season and mood. This line binds autumn has come and I think of my brother to the same instant; the chill is weather and also feeling.
层层递进的四联 · Four Couplets, Step by Step
这首的结构很清楚：首联写环境（戍鼓、雁声），颔联写时令与心理（白露、故乡月），颈联写兄弟分散（有弟、无家），尾联写音信不通（寄书不达、未休兵）。一环扣一环，从夜景走到最具体的困境。值得注意的是每联都收得更紧：鼓声是外面的世界，白露是时间，分散的兄弟是人，最后落在「信都寄不到」。这种由远及近的收束，让全诗读到最后有一种无处可逃的窒闷感。
The structure is clear: the first couplet gives setting (garrison drum, goose cry), the second season and mind (white dew, the moon at home), the third the scattering of brothers (I have brothers, with no home), the last the failure of word (letters undelivered, the fighting unstopped). Ring joins ring, moving from night scene to the most concrete predicament. Each couplet draws tighter, from the outer world of the drum to time to the scattered men to the plain fact that even a letter cannot get through. This closing-in leaves the poem with a sense of being shut in on every side.