daily character
秋夕(杜牧)
Title: Autumn Night ▪ 秋夕
Author: Du Mu ▪ 杜牧
Poetic Form: júejù ▪ 绝句
1. (银 + 烛) + (秋 + 光 + 冷) + (画 + 屏)
(silver + candle) + (autumn + light + cold) +
(painting + screen)
gloss: The cold autumn light shines on the
candlelit painted screen
2. ((轻 + 罗) + (小 + 扇) + 扑) + 流 + 萤
((lightweight + net) + (small + fan) + to flutter)
+ to banish + fireflies
gloss: A small (silken) fan flutters to ward off
flitting fireflies
3. (天 + 阶) + (夜 + 色) + (凉 + 如 + 水)
(heaven + steps) + (night + color) + (cool + as if +
water)
gloss: The palace steps seem cool as water in
the nighttime glow
4. 坐 + 看 + ((牵 + 牛) + (织 + 女) + 星)
to sit + to watch + ((to pull + cow) + (to weave +
woman) + stars)
gloss: [She] sits watching the stars: Altair and
Veda (the Cowherd and the Weaving Maid)
Autumn Night
translation by Jessica Alexander ©
A pallid candle flickers cold upon autumn's painted screen,
While a solitary silken fan chases dusky fireflies into the
night.
In the chill half-light, the palace steps are cool and blue as
water,
Upon which she sits, watching the Weaving Maid, her
Cowherd, and their starry tryst.
Analysis
This poem depicts the desolation and loneliness of a palace lady-in-waiting in feudal times.
The first two lines describe how the weak, white light of a candle on an autumn night changes the shades on a silk screen while a lady-in-waiting swats at fireflies with her fan. Line 2, in which the lady-in-waiting is chasing away the fireflies, has multiple meanings: (1) Fireflies are known to live in the damp of graves, considered a place for those who have been forsaken – perhaps the lady has few days of glory left, as well; (2) The lady must be very bored if chasing away fireflies is her greatest diversion – why isn’t she spending her time in other activities, we wonder?; (3) As fans are typically used during the hot summers, not in autumn, ancient poetry often used the autumnal fan as a metaphor for the deserted wife.
With the additional information provided in line 3 (the coolness and color of the night), it becomes clear that it is late in the evening, which means the lady-in-waiting must be alone on the palace steps, everyone else having already gone to bed, as she looks up at the two stars, Altair and Veda, wishing for her own true love rather than the lot she has been dealt by destiny. Though her emotions are not explicitly laid out, the reader cannot help but be struck by the tragedy and plaintiveness of her life.
Line 4 introduces us to the two stars, Altair and Veda, known as the “Weaving Maid” and the “Cowherd”. Associated with (impossible?) love, the story of these two stars is still common currency in modern China, where it forms the basis for China’s own “Valentine’s Day”, 七夕, the seventh evening of the seventh lunar month.
Lines 1 and 2 rhyme, and both rhyme obliquely with line 4.
reference
