Longxi Journey, Chen Tao (Tang Shi #309)
Saturday, 28 March 2020 08:20![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammerSworn to sweep away the Xiongnu, not caring for their lives,
Five thousand sable uniforms lay dead in the dust of the Hu.
Have pity on these bones upon the bank of Wuding River—
They still are the people dreamt of in the women’s quarters.
陇西行
誓扫匈奴不顾身，
五千貂锦丧胡尘。
可怜无定河边骨，
犹是深闺梦里人。
This refers to an infamous Han defeat by Xiongnu steppe nomads in a 104 BCE battle by the Wuding (“Unfixed” or “Shifting”) River in northern Shaanxi. Xiongnu and Hu are different peoples, but as mentioned before, sometimes the terms for non-Han groups get tossed around carelessly. Lost in translation: the uniforms are named indirectly as “sable (and) brocade,” which were used in the uniforms of elite soldiers.
Longxi of the title is, fwiw, in eastern Gansu, a fair distance away from the battlefield—this is part two of a four-poem sequence written while traveling there, and the others weren’t included in the collection.
—L.
Five thousand sable uniforms lay dead in the dust of the Hu.
Have pity on these bones upon the bank of Wuding River—
They still are the people dreamt of in the women’s quarters.
陇西行
誓扫匈奴不顾身，
五千貂锦丧胡尘。
可怜无定河边骨，
犹是深闺梦里人。
This refers to an infamous Han defeat by Xiongnu steppe nomads in a 104 BCE battle by the Wuding (“Unfixed” or “Shifting”) River in northern Shaanxi. Xiongnu and Hu are different peoples, but as mentioned before, sometimes the terms for non-Han groups get tossed around carelessly. Lost in translation: the uniforms are named indirectly as “sable (and) brocade,” which were used in the uniforms of elite soldiers.
Longxi of the title is, fwiw, in eastern Gansu, a fair distance away from the battlefield—this is part two of a four-poem sequence written while traveling there, and the others weren’t included in the collection.
—L.
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Date: 29 March 2020 00:47 (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 March 2020 00:54 (UTC)