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Re: 唐朝選詩 Selected poems from the Tang Dynasty

Author: CHUNG Yoon Ngan
Date: 07-05-11 11:45

岑參詩 A poem by Cen Can (715AD to 770AD)

164. 行軍九日思長安故園 The army on the march on Double Nine Festival [*1A])

強欲登高去,---Qiang3 yu4 deng gao qu4,
無人送酒來;---Wu2 ren2 song4 jiu3(*2B) lai2;
遙憐故園菊,---Yao2 lian2 gu4 yuan2 ju2,
應傍戰場開.---Ying bang4 zhan4 chang3 kai.
..................................................................

The explanations in plain Chinese and English.

(1) 今天是重陽節, 我硬想去登高,
As today is the festival of Double Nine I am thinking of forcing myself
to climb a high place,
(2) 但是卻沒有人送酒來給我喝啊!
However, there is no one sending me wine to drink!
(3) 我只是遙遙的憐惜那故園的菊花,
In a far distance I feel pity for myself for thinking of the chrysanthemum
at home
(4) 此刻應該正依傍著戰場而盛開吧!
At this moment the battle should be about to begin!

Notes:

[*1A] 九月九日 (The 9th day of the 9th month)
During the Eastern Han Dynasty (東漢朝 25AD to 220AD), Huan Jing (桓景)
was told by his teacher Fei Changfang (費長房) that his family was going
to have a big calamity on the 9th day of the 9th month and he should take
his family to a high place to camp and drink chrysanthemum wine and by doing
so his family would escape from the upcoming calamity.

On the day of the 9th day of the 9th month Huan Jing followed Fei Changfang's
advice. Very early in the morning, he took his family with enough cooked
food for the day climbed up a high place for that day. The family had cold
food for lunch in the afternoon and cold dinner in the late afternoon as
they had no fire to warm up the cooked food (Historians called it "登高寒
食 Eating cold food in a high place").

The family went home in the early evening. When they arrived home they found
that all their cows, goats, family dog, all the chickens, ducks, pet birds
etc were mysteriously dead. Huan Jing went to tell Fei Changfang who replied
that it was "代之矣 meaning that the animals took his family's place." The
news of the incident spread far and wide and later on that day it became
a festival called 重陽 (Chongyang).

Generations later people followed Huan Jing's example and climbed up high
place
and had cold food on that particular day - the 9th day of the 9th month.

[2B] 送酒 (song4 jiu3]
On a certain Double Nine Festival Tao Yuanming (陶淵明 372AD to 427AD),
a famous poet during the Eastern Jin Dynasty (東晉朝 317 AD to 420AD), was
without wine to drink. Feeling sad he came out of his house and went near
the hedge and sighed. He saw a man in white came to him and gave him a jar
of wine as a present for the festival. The man in white was a courier of
Wang Hong (王弘), the Governor of Jiangzhou (江州).
.......................................................................

In October 1929, Mao Zedong (毛澤東) also wrote a poem on,

重陽 Chongyang (Double Nine Festiva)

人生易老天難老.---Ren2 sheng yi4 lao3 tian nan2 lao3.
歲歲重陽,--------------Sui4 sui4 Chongyang,
今又重陽.--------------Jin you4 Chongyang.
戰地黃花份外香.---Zhan4 di4 huang2 hua fen4 wai4 xiang.

一年一度秋風勁,---Yi nian2 yi du4 qiu feng jing4.
不似春光,--------------Bu4 si4 chun guang,
勝似春光.--------------Sheng4 si4 chun guang.
寥廓江天萬里霜.---Liao2 kuo4 jiang tian wan4 li3 shuang.

Men can grow old but not the sky.
The Double Nine Festival occurs every year,
Today is the Festival of Double Nine.
The yellow flowers growing in the battlefields are more fragrant.

Once a year the autumn wind blows strongly.
It is not like the spring time,
But now it is better than the spring time.
There are frosts in the boundless sky.

The festival of Double Nine (重陽 Chong Yang) occurs every year on the 9th
day of the 9th month in the Lunar Calendar. It occurred on October 11, in
1929 in the Solar Calendar when Mao Zedong wrote this poem.

On June 22, 1929, in the 7th Congress meeting of the 4th Red Army at Longyan
(龍岩) in west Fujian province (福建省), Mao Zedong was being criticized
for practicing the "Patriarchal System 家長制" by Zhe De (朱德) and Chen
Yi (陳毅). In the election Mao Zedong was not elected as the Secretary of
the Military Committee.

He left the 4th Red Army and went to work in Shanghang (上杭), where he
had a severe attack of malaria and he nearly died of it. He was sick for
five months and began to recover in November 1929. In September 1929 Zhou
Enlai (周恩來) had taken charge of the Central Committee of the Chinese
Communist Party in Shanghai (上海). Knowing that Mao Zedong was not a member
in the Military Committee of the 4th Red Army Zhou Enlai wrote and directed
the 4th Red Army to reinstate Mao Zedong as the Secretary of the Military
Committee of the 4th Red Army. On November 26, 1929, Mao Zedong was reinstated
as the Secretary of the Military Committee according to the directive of
the " September Letter".

This poem was written when he was a malaria sufferer. This was how he felt
about life while he was lying on bed.

Posted to asiawind.com
By CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (鄭永元)

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