水调歌头·明月几时有 When was the moon ever so bright?

https://soundcloud.com/user-312174614/updated-09102022?si=7af9851ce0dc4eeaa90599ecf2e67ed0&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

水调歌头·明月几时有

丙辰中秋，欢饮达旦，大醉，作此篇。兼怀子由。

苏轼

明月几时有，把酒问青天。

不知天上宫阙，今夕是何年？

我欲乘风归去，又恐琼楼玉宇，高处不胜寒。

起舞弄清影，何似在人间！

转朱阁，低绮户，照无眠。

不应有恨，何事长向别时圆？

人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全。

但愿人长久，千里共婵娟。

When Was the Moon Ever So Bright?

—to the tune of “Prelude to Water Melody”

(Written for the Mid-Autumn Festival in 1076, after drinking alone through

the night, and dedicated to my brother Ziyou.)

Chinese original: Su Shi (11th century) · English version: Julia Min (2025)

Based on the version by G. Osing, J. Min & H. Huang (1989)

When was the Moon ever so bright?

With a cup in hand filled with wine,

I ask the vast, black-blue Empyrean.

What year is it in Heaven tonight?

Could I be taken there on a wind ride?

But I fear it could be cold up so high

in the riches of the Moon's jade palace.

I’d rather dance a satire to the rhymes,

along with the lonely shadow of mine

for the simple earthly vibes of mankind.

The Moon drifts past the red pavilion’s side,

lowers her mellow gaze into my chamber,

keeping me awake. Oh Brother, such is life!

It’s been seven years since we were together.

And when we’re apart, she’s full and bright!

It’s a spell beyond heaven and mankind.

The moon waxes and wanes, dims and shines.

Life has ups and downs, greetings, goodbyes.

May we, now and always, be blissful at heart,

and join under the one Goddess when apart.

（Other versions ( 许渊冲/林语堂)for your reference）

Picture retrieved from Google

Notes:

1. “What year …”: According to Chinese tradition, three days in Heaven equal three years on Earth, so time was considered differently in the celestial and earthly realms.

2. “The Moon”: According to legend, a palace called Guanghan stands on the moon and is home to the goddess Chang E. The personified Moon may therefore also evoke the Moon Goddess.

Appreciation:

Great poetry often springs from moments when life seems least generous. This ci lyric is a remarkable example. Written in Mizhou during the Mid-Autumn Festival of 1076, it emerged from one of the most difficult periods in Su Shi’s life. His opposition to Wang Anshi’s New Policies had distanced him from the imperial court, prompting him to request a regional posting. His beloved wife had passed away, and he had not seen his younger brother Ziyou for seven years. Yet from the political disappointment and personal separation came one of the most enduring poems in Chinese literature.

The poem presents a quiet spiritual journey. It begins in wonder before the Moon, then rises towards the imagined jade palace in Heaven, where the poet briefly dreams of escaping the disappointments of the human world. The turning point comes in the impressive line, “… for the simple earthly vibes of mankind.” From that moment onward, the poem descends gently from Heaven back to Earth. Instead of seeking perfection beyond human reach, Su Shi embraces a deeper wisdom: our lives are precious not because they are flawless, but because they are shared. The poem closes not with escape but with a blessing that has comforted generations: though separated by great distances, those who gaze upon the same Moon on the same night remain connected through the silver vibes.

Readers may recognise a similar movement in John Keats’s Ode on a Grecian Urn (1820). Keats, too, contemplates an ideal world of timeless beauty, untouched by change or decay. Yet the urn’s perfection is also strangely lifeless—a “Cold Pastoral,” forever removed from the warmth, sorrow, and imperfection of lived experience. Like Su Shi, Keats ultimately remains within the human world, accepting its transience as the very condition that gives love and beauty their deepest meaning.

William Wordsworth arrives at a comparable insight from another direction. In poems such as Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey and Ode: Intimations of Immortality, he looks back with longing upon the visionary intensity of youth, only to discover that maturity offers its own richer gifts: memory, compassion, and quiet human affection. The celestial radiance may fade, but it yields a wisdom more deeply rooted in life itself.

The emotional power of Su Shi’s ci lyric lies in this profound reversal. What begins as a longing to leave the human world ends in an affirmation of it. Nearly a thousand years later, families across the Chinese-speaking world still recite his closing lines beneath the Mid-Autumn Moon, connecting with loved ones far away. Few poems have travelled so far across time while remaining so close to the human heart.

Reference:

1. The old English version: Blooming Alone in Winter by Gordon Osing, Julia Min, and Huang Haipeng, published by the People's Publication House Henan Province in 1990 (《寒心未肯随春态》戈登.奥赛茵，闵晓红，黄海鹏) --"After Drinking All Night at the Bingchen Autumn Festival":"When was the moon ever so bright? I ask the blue-black empyrean./What year is it in Heaven? What year this evening?/Would that I could be taken there on the wind!/But I fear the cold riches of the jade moon's mansions,/So instead I'll dance a satire to my shadow, like nothing on earth.//The moon alters my red pavilion, threads through the silk door, keeps me awake;/Give-up hating realities, my brother; the moon grows fuller and brighter as we feel losses./ What else is it but sorrows, joys, partings and reunions,/As the moon is clouded or brilliant, empty or brimming./The arrangement is ancient, hardest to those seeking perfection./Now and always, peace to our hearts, sharing the same/far-away Goddess in the One Heaven.//

Pinying and Word-For-Word Translation:

shuǐ diào gē tóu - to the tune of Shuidiaogetou

(bǐng chén zhōng qiū ，huān yǐn dá dàn ，dà zuì ，zuò cǐ piān 。jiān huái zǐ yóu ) - Bingchen year Mid-Autumn Festival, enjoy drinking to the next morning; heavily drunk, compose this ci, also miss Ziyou;

míng yuè jǐ shí yǒu - bright moon when have;

bǎ jiǔ wèn qīng tiān - hold a cup of wine and ask dark-blue sky;

bú zhī tiān shàng gōng què - not know in Heaven Palace;

jīn xī shì hé nián - this evening is what year;

wǒ yù chéng fēng guī qù – I wish to fly on wind to return;

yòu kǒng qióng lóu yù yǔ - but afraid jade towers jade mansions;

gāo chù bú shèng hán - high place not bear the cold;

qǐ wǔ nòng qīng yǐng - start dancing, make fun with my shadows;

hé sì zài rén jiān - what like in human world;

zhuǎn zhū gé - the moon turns around red pavilion;

dī qǐ hù - lowers light into the crafted doors and windows;

zhào wú mián – so much light, no sleep;

bú yīng yǒu hèn – should not have hatred;

hé shì zhǎng xiàng bié shí yuan – why is it often full and bright when we are parted;

rén yǒu bēi huān lí hé – humans have sorrows joys departures reunions;

yuè yǒu yīn qíng yuán quē – the moon is cloudy clear wax or wane;

cǐ shì gǔ nán quán – such has been difficult for perfection since ancient times;

dàn yuàn rén zhǎng jiǔ – only wish we have each other for a long time;

qiān lǐ gòng chán juān -thousand li share Chanjuan;