View/Open - University of Victoria

219
走 马 川 行 奉 送 出 师 西 征
The Ballad of Running Horse River: Presented Upon
Seeing Off the Troops on a Western Campaign
君 不 见 走 马 川 行 雪 海 边
平 沙 莽 莽 黄 入 天
轮 台 九 月 风 夜 吼
一 川 碎 石 大 如 斗
随 风 满 地 石 乱 走
Have you not seen Running Horse River 10 on the banks
of the Sea of Snow, 11
Level sands vast and wide all yellow entering the sky.
Luntai in the ninth month winds at night howl,
A river of broken rocks big as dippers
Follow the winds covering the ground, rocks
tumble helter-skelter.
匈 奴 草 黄 马 正 肥 Xiongnu grasses yellow, horses well fed and sturdy; 12
金 山 西 见 烟 尘 飞 West of Jin mountain 13 one sees smoke and dust flying,
汉 家 大 将 西 出 师 The general of the House of Han 14 sets off west with
his army.
将 军 金 甲 夜 不 脱
半 夜 军 行 戈 相 拨
风 头 如 刀 面 如 割
马 毛 带 雪 汗 气 蒸
五 花 连 钱 旋 作 冰
幕 中 草 檄 砚 水 凝
虏 骑 闻 之 应 胆 慑
料 知 短 兵 不 敢 接
The general does not remove his coat of armour at night,
The army sets out at midnight, halberds rub against
each other,
The crest of winds like knives; faces seem sliced.
Horse coats covered in snow; their sweat steams and rises,
Dappled spots like linked coins suddenly turn back
into ice,
Inside the army tent the inkstone's water for writing
documents denouncing the enemy has frozen.
Lu cavalry hearing of this must certainly panic,
One would presume that they would not dare cross swords
with us,
10
Sun Yingkui 孙 映 逵 speculates that “Running Horse River”, its exact coordinates unknown, is either a river bed
without its aquatic element or is a swathe of the frontier plains. The argument for the second supposition rests on reading
川 (chuan) not as river, the character's most common reading, but on its less frequent reference to “plains” (pingyuan 平
原 ). See Sun Yingkui 孙 映 逵 , “Censhen biansaishi diming qianshi 岑 参 边 塞 诗 地 名 浅 释 ”in Tangdai biansaishi
yanjiu lunwen xuancui 唐 代 边 塞 诗 研 究 论 文 选 粹 , pp. 229-251, especially p. 246.
11
An area west of Tian mountain's main peak and within the administrative area of the Anxi commandery. See CSJJZ, p.
147 and Zhang Hui, ed., Cen Shen biansaishixuan, p. 52. The area was so named for its “perennial falling snow” 春 夏 常
雨 雪 . See Xin Tang shu 新 唐 书 221( 下 ), p. 5 in SKQS. See also Cen Shen's “Seventh Month at Luntai”, translated in
chapter three of this thesis, for another appearance of this geographic entity.
12
Indicative of an opportune time for the Xiongnu to harass the Tang armies. See CSJJZ, p. 149.
13
A main peak of Tian mountain. See Zhang Hui 张 辉 , ed., Cen Shen biansaishi xuan, p.53.
14
General Feng Changqing 封 常 清 .