Moon at the Mountain Fort, Li Bai (300 Tang Shi #38)

Bright moon leaves mountains for the sky—
Vast haze between the clouds and lake—
A rising wind is blowing down
The thousands of li past Jade Gate Pass.
Han troops go out the White Mount road,
Tibetans raid the Qinghai cove.
We long have come to this battlefield—
We don’t see any men come back.
Garrison soldiers watch afar,
Thoughts of return bring bitter faces.
In women’s quarters on this night
Are sighs from those who can’t yet rest.

关山月
明月出天山，
苍茫云海间；
长风几万里，
吹度玉门关。
汉下白登道，
胡窥青海湾。
由来征战地，
不见有人还。
戍客望边色，
思归多苦颜；
高楼当此夜，
叹息未应闲。

Qinghai Lake is in eastern Qinghai Province, a little south of the central Gansu Corridor, and the location of numerous battles with the expansionary Tibetan Empire (here generically called “Hu”) during the 7th and 8th centuries. Jade Gate Pass in western Gansu (first met in #277) was where the Silk Road passed around the far western end of the Great Wall. Idiom: the women’s quarters is literally the “high tower” of the garrison that officers’ families lived in.

—L.