阳关曲·中秋月 The Mid-autumn Moon

阳关曲·中秋月

原作：苏东坡 (11世纪)

英译：闵晓红（2022）

暮云收尽溢清寒，

银汉无声转玉盘。 此生此夜不长好，

明月明年何处看？

The Mid-autumn Moon

--to the tune of “Yangguan Tune”

Chinese original: Su Shi ( 11th Century)

English version: Julia Min (2022)

The clouds at dusk are fully cleared, and here,

you and I, beneath the cool, blue empyrean.

The Milky Way, so quiet, comes into shape,

lifting the jade plate, both high and near.

This night, this life, will soon have slipped away.

Where shall we be on Moon Festival next year?

For appreciation:

This poem moves from outward scenery to inward reflection, a common and effective mode in classical Chinese poetry. The original consists of a single four-line stanza; the English version has been expanded into six lines to allow the images and emotions to unfold more gradually.

The poem was composed in 1077, when the brothers Su Shi and Su Zhe were finally reunited for the Mid-Autumn Festival after eight years of separation. The previous Mid-Autumn gathering had already given rise to Su Shi’s masterpiece “When Was the Moon Ever So Bright.” One can easily imagine their quiet joy as they sat together in the garden, perhaps with a few close friends, waiting for the dusk clouds to drift away and reveal a clear blue sky. Stars appeared one by one; the Milky Way slowly took shape; then the full moon rose in the distance, growing brighter as it climbed overhead.

The Mid-Autumn Festival follows the golden harvest in China—a moment when the year’s labor is largely complete and life turns inward, toward family reunions, weddings, and gatherings with friends, before the cycle begins again with the Lunar New Year.

The moon has long been one of the most cherished subjects in Chinese art, associated with romance and loneliness, homesickness and reunion, the gentleness of nature, and the purity of spirit. On this night, poets composed verses and riddles for social gatherings. The most celebrated examples come from the Song dynasty, when ci lyrics were written to popular tunes and sung on the spot—something like a Western garden party, infused with elegance and romance. Food was secondary: mooncakes accompanied flower tea, oranges, nuts, and seasonal fruits. In halls or upstairs pavilions, amid curling incense smoke, members of the gentry played guqin, painted, wrote calligraphy, and composed new lyrics in response to one another’s poems.

Reading this scene today, one cannot help feeling that this—if anything—is what an art club once looked like, and perhaps what it could be again.

Reference:

1. 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) (“Mid-Autumn Moon: Evening shadows gathered in, a bright chill spills over the land./The Milky Way is silent and the jade plate spins./This night - this life - we don't have the food things for long./And new year's moon-- who knows? -- if we'll see her together again.”)

2. pictures from 潘望京书法

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