View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
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97<br />
also the non-militaristic interaction between non-Chinese and Chinese involved in its propagation, an<br />
encounter between peoples that moves emotions rather than remove heads from shoulders on<br />
battlefields:<br />
此 曲 胡 人 传 入 汉 The Hu people transmitted this tune to the Han, 230<br />
诸 客 见 之 惊 且 叹 All the guests watch, are surprised and sigh.<br />
(lines 5-6)<br />
The remainder is devoted to the dance and dancer herself, and the poet-narrator's fusion <strong>of</strong> the frontier<br />
environs and literature <strong>of</strong> frontier themes from the yuefu into his exalted description <strong>of</strong> local musical<br />
culture:<br />
曼 脸 娇 娥 纤 复 秾 Fine faced sweet beauty, hourglass figure, 231<br />
轻 罗 金 缕 花 葱 笼<br />
回 裙 转 袖 若 飞 雪<br />
Diaphanous silk gauze with golden threads<br />
and embroidered flowers.<br />
The turn <strong>of</strong> her skirt and spinning her sleeves<br />
are like flying snow,<br />
左 旋 右 旋 生 旋 风 A twirl to the left and a twirl to the right produces a<br />
whirlwind. 232<br />
琵 琶 横 笛 和 未 匝<br />
花 门 山 头 黄 云 合<br />
忽 作 出 塞 入 塞 声<br />
The pipa and horizontal flutes join in, though before<br />
they are finished<br />
Yellow clouds close over the summit <strong>of</strong> Huamen<br />
mountain. 233<br />
Suddenly the sounds <strong>of</strong> “Beyond the Frontier” and<br />
“Entering the Frontier”, 234<br />
230<br />
The “Han” being the Chinese people<br />
231<br />
“Hourglass” may be anachronistic here. The sense is that the dancer is well-proportioned, both slim (xian 纤 ) and buxom<br />
(nong 秾 )<br />
232<br />
The repetition <strong>of</strong> 旋 in the original, twice as “twirl” and then in the compound 旋 风 (xuanfeng, whirlwind),<br />
dramatically conveys the sense that a vortex <strong>of</strong> snow and gauzy cloud is gradually building until it fully strengthens and<br />
whiplashes into the accompanying strings and flutes. The following two run-on lines stylistically transmit a similar sense<br />
<strong>of</strong> uncontrollable, rapturous winds.<br />
233<br />
The mountain is located about three hundred miles north <strong>of</strong> Juyan Lake 居 延 海 , Inner Mongolia. In the context <strong>of</strong> the<br />
poem it signifies a prototypical frontier scenery. The line should be read as a personification <strong>of</strong> the music where the tune<br />
causes the aforementioned weather patterns to occur.<br />
234<br />
Not the original yuefu tunes themselves; they were long lost by the Tang period. Rather, the music expresses the<br />
sentiment <strong>of</strong> these sets <strong>of</strong> yuefus poems, a mood visualized in the succeeding line's desert <strong>of</strong> desolation.