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