A Soldier’s Complaint, Liu Zhongyong (Tang Shi #277)

[lnhammer]

Year after year, Gold River repeats Jade Gate.
Day after day, it’s horse whips and sword rings.
Late spring, white snow returns to the Green Tomb.
The Yellow River winds endlessly around Black Mountain.

征人怨
岁岁金河复玉关，
朝朝马策与刀环。
三春白雪归青冢，
万里黄河绕黑山。

Jade Gate was a frontier pass in the Great Wall through which the Silk Road passed, near what’s now the west end of Gansu. Gold River is in what’s now Huhhot, Inner Mongolia, also a frontier posting. The tomb is that of Wang Zhaojun, a great beauty of 1st century BCE, a little south of Huhhot, and Black Mountain is nearby, just off the Ordos Loop of the Yellow River. Sword rings are loose brass loops through the end of the pommel—the details of that line add up to “we see battle daily.” “Endlessly” is literally “ten thousand li.”

—L.

Comments

[lnhammer]

Still struggling with the rhythm of this one, plus how to render the first line — the full sense is something like “[this] Gold River is a repeat of [my previous posting] Jade Gate.”

[sovay]

Still struggling with the rhythm of this one, plus how to render the first line — the full sense is something like “[this] Gold River is a repeat of [my previous posting] Jade Gate.”

Is "year after year" present in the original or your introduction?

[lnhammer]

In the original: 岁岁 "year year" or "many years." (I omitted that part in my summary of the line.)

[sovay]

In the original: 岁岁 "year year" or "many years." (I omitted that part in my summary of the line.)

The repetition of "year after year" will carry some of the unvarying sense you're looking for, then, which means you have room to stretch if "repeats" feels too clumsy of a verb. "Year after year, Gold River after Jade Gate," etc.

[sovay]

Year after year, Gold River repeats Jade Gate.
Day after day, it’s horse whips and sword rings.

I just like this entire thing.

[lnhammer]

The soldier poems are surprisingly interesting glimpses of life outside the world of the scholar-official set.