Mooring on the Qinhuai, Du Mu (Tang Shi #291)
Mist blankets the cold water, moonlight blankets the sands:
A nighttime mooring on the Qinhuai near a wine-shop.
A song-girl doesn’t know a conquered country’s regret,
But over the river one’s still singing “Courtyard Flower.”
泊秦淮
烟笼寒水月笼沙，
夜泊秦淮近酒家。
商女不知亡国恨，
隔江犹唱后庭花。
The Qinhuai River is in Nanjing. “Courtyard Flower” was a song reputed to have been written by the last emperor of the southern Chen Dynasty, whose capital was Nanjing, as a presentment of his 589 fall to the reunification forces of the Sui Dynasty. Du Mu’s singer lived more than two centuries later.
—L.
A nighttime mooring on the Qinhuai near a wine-shop.
A song-girl doesn’t know a conquered country’s regret,
But over the river one’s still singing “Courtyard Flower.”
泊秦淮
烟笼寒水月笼沙，
夜泊秦淮近酒家。
商女不知亡国恨，
隔江犹唱后庭花。
The Qinhuai River is in Nanjing. “Courtyard Flower” was a song reputed to have been written by the last emperor of the southern Chen Dynasty, whose capital was Nanjing, as a presentment of his 589 fall to the reunification forces of the Sui Dynasty. Du Mu’s singer lived more than two centuries later.
—L.