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174
“Watering Horses at the Great Wall Spring” is an early precursor to this association between frontier
service and delayed communication by post:
作 书 与 内 舍 He writes a letter to his wife 16 :
便 嫁 莫 留 生
“You should marry again, don't wait for me;
善 事 新 姑 嫜
Take good care of your new in-laws
时 时 念 我 故 夫 子 But think of me often, your old husband.”
报 书 往 边 地
A letter came in reply to the border:
君 今 出 语 一 何 鄙 “How crude are your words these days!
身 在 祸 难 中
There you are in the midst of hardship,
17
何 为 稽 留 他 家 子 How could you ask me to be another man's wife?” 18
(lines 13-20)
But it is through their reception, infrequent arrivals or conspicuous absence that letters from home
would come to embody longing for people and places far from the frontier:
月 出 照 关 山
秋 风 人 未 还
清 光 无 远 近
19
乡 泪 半 书 间
The moon emerges and shines on the mountain pass;
Autumn wind, a man who has yet to return.
Clear light neither far nor near;
Homesick tears shed half way through a letter.
(Dai Shulun, “Moon at the Mountain Pass”, lines 1-4)
百 战 一 身 在
相 逢 白 发 生
何 时 得 乡 信
20
每 日 算 归 程
After a hundred battles I am still here,
Running into one another, my hair is already white;
When will I receive letters from home?
Everyday I count down the day of my return.
(Wang Jian, “Encountering an Old Friend on the Frontier”, lines 1-4)
无 事 向 边 外
至 今 仍 不 归
三 年 绝 乡 信
No urgent matters here beyond the frontier,
I have so far yet to return.
Three years without letters from home,
16
内 舍 (nei she), translated here as “wife”, literally means “inner quarter”.
17
YFSJ 38.556-557.
18
Slightly modified version of Joseph Allen, tr., In the Voice of Others, p. 71
19
“Guanshan yue er shou” 关 山 月 二 首 by Dai Shulun 戴 叔 伦 (732-789). See YFSJ 23.338.
20
“Saishang feng guren” 塞 上 逢 故 人 by Wang Jian. See QTS 299.3390.