View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
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193<br />
只 在 马 蹄 下<br />
明 日 归 长 安<br />
为 君 急 走 马<br />
Only beneath a horse's hooves.<br />
Tomorrow I return to Chang'an,<br />
For you, I hurry my horse onwards.<br />
(“Tune: Remembering Chang'an”, second <strong>of</strong> two verses)<br />
The actual objects <strong>of</strong> perception, the existents <strong>of</strong> the landscape, also emanate a longing for<br />
home. Two particularly formidable images <strong>of</strong> the pain <strong>of</strong> separation are the moon and sun, 71 especially<br />
when direct associations between these existents are made with one's distant home. For instance, when<br />
the cold and isolating rays <strong>of</strong> the moon shine on sentry buildings after the expression <strong>of</strong> thoughts <strong>of</strong><br />
loved ones far away is made, there is an amplification <strong>of</strong> the physical void between family and the<br />
poet-narrator:<br />
也 知 塞 垣 苦<br />
岂 为 妻 子 谋<br />
山 口 月 欲 出<br />
光 照 关 城 楼<br />
I know <strong>of</strong> the bitterness <strong>of</strong> the frontier,<br />
I did not come for my wife or family.<br />
The moon about to rise at the mountain pass,<br />
Shines first on the sentry buildings.<br />
(“Passing Through Long Mountain for the First Time”, lines 21-24)<br />
Not to be restricted in its spatial application, the moon also signifies the temporal quality <strong>of</strong> such<br />
familial separation:<br />
走 马 西 来 欲 到 天<br />
辞 家 见 月 两 回 圆<br />
今 夜 不 知 何 处 宿<br />
平 沙 万 里 绝 人 烟<br />
On horseback riding west nearing the sky,<br />
Since leaving home I have seen two full moons.<br />
Where will I be staying this night?<br />
The broad level desert goes on for ten thousand li<br />
and not a sign <strong>of</strong> human habitation.<br />
(“Composed in the Desert”)<br />
And like the moon, the sun, when perceived as if it were rising above Chang'an, can suggest the poet-<br />
71<br />
Hans Frankel, The Flowering Plum and the Palace Lady, p. 84.