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宿五松山下荀媪家 (李白)

Title: Overnight at Old Lady Xun's at the Foot of Five Pine Mountain ▪ 宿五松山下荀媪家
Author: Li Bai ▪ 李白
Poetic Form: lǜshī ▪ 律诗

1. 我 + 宿 + ((五 + 松) + 下)
    I + to spend the night + ((five + pine) + below)
    gloss: I spent the night at the foot of Five Pine
    (Mountain)

2. (寂 + 寥) + (无 + 所 + 欢)
    (lonesome + empty) + (no + place + jubilant)
    gloss: [I am] all alone, with no feeling of joy

3. (田 + 家) + (秋 + 作 + 苦)
    (field + house) + (autumn + to regard as + bitter)
    gloss: The Autumn is bitter for peasants

4. (邻 + 女) + 夜 + 舂 + 寒
    (neighbor + woman) + night + to pound rice +
       cold
     gloss: The neighbor lady pounds rice in the
     night; it is cold

5. (跪 + 进) + (彫 + (胡 + 饭))
    (to kneel + to advance) + (to decorate + (wild +
       rice))
    gloss: [She] kneels down to proffer wild rice

6. ((月 + 光) + 明) + (素 + 盘)
    ((moon + light) + bright) + (plain + plate)
    gloss: In the moonlight, the plate is plain/empty

7. (令 + 人) + 惭 + (漂 + 母)
    (to create + person) + ashamed + (beautiful +
       mother)
     gloss: This makes a person ashamed [before]
     the 'Beautiful Mother' (an old woman who gave
     the historic personage Han Xin a meal in a time
     of need)

8. (三 + 谢) + (不 + 能 + 餐)
    (three + thanks) + (not + can + to eat)
    gloss: I thank her three times and still cannot eat
    (because I feel I do not deserve the food)

Overnight at Old Lady Xun's at the Foot of Five Pine Mountain

translation by Jessica Alexander ©

I overnight in the shadow of Five Pines, desolate and
                                                                                        cheerless.
Autumn is bitter to peasants;
The neighbor woman pounds rice late in the cold night.
Kneels, offers me wild rice, moonlight glinting off the
                                                                                    simple plate.
Beautiful Mother's generous hand humbles;
My meager thanks unfit for the feast.

Analysis

One evening Li Bai stayed the night at the old woman’s home; this poem is his way of saying thank you and of describing his feelings on that night.

In lines 1 and 2, the poet describes his own loneliness in the night in this small village at the foot of the mountain.  In lines 3 and 4, it becomes clear that there is nothing on the mountain but the peasants’ own hardship (“苦” references both hard work and sorrow).  Though autumn should be a time of festivity, the people are oppressed and have no hope, thus no merriment, which makes the sounds Li Bai hears at night seem all the more desolate.  “寒” in particular stands out, describing the loneliness of the sound of pounding rice late in the night, while simultaneously giving the reader the feeling that the woman pounding the rice is cold in the autumn chill.  In lines 5 and 6, we are finally introduced to the old woman in the title.  She is proffering rice to entertain her guest, with emphasis in line 6 on the white bowl of white rice shining in the moonlight.  In lines 7 and 8, Li Bai throws in a literary reference: “漂母”.  When Han Xin, a historical Chinese personage, was young, he was destitute.  At the river, an old woman washing bed linens saw how hungry he was and gave him food.  When he became the King of Chu, he repaid her grandly in thanks.  Li Bai is ashamed he cannot repay the old woman at the foot of Five Pine Mountain the same way.

Li Bai was known for his pride, but his courtesy and sincerity in this poem is often said to demonstrate the solidness of his moral character.  This poem is written in an austere, flat tone to match the stark setting of the poem.

Lines 2, 4, 6, and 8 all rhyme obliquely.

Reference

Other Translations

Unable to find any current translations.  Please contact me if you know of one!