Weicheng Song, Wang Wei (Tang Shi #312)
Saturday, 11 April 2020 14:48![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammerA Weicheng dawn, rain gently dampens the dust—
The tavern’s green with willows freshly colored.
I urge you, drain another cup of wine:
Out west, beyond Yang Pass, there’s no old friends.
渭城曲
渭城朝雨浥轻尘，
客舍青青柳色新。
劝君更尽一杯酒，
西出阳关无故人。
On to the folk-song-style poems in this form. Weicheng (“city on the Wei”) was a few kilometers west/upstream of Chang’an. (Possibly important overtone: it was the capital of the Qin kingdom then dynasty before that was overthrown.) The willows imply a parting, confirmed in the next lines. Yang Pass, on the Silk Road somewhat to the west, near Dunhuang, Gansu, was the border between the central and frontier provinces.
—L.
The tavern’s green with willows freshly colored.
I urge you, drain another cup of wine:
Out west, beyond Yang Pass, there’s no old friends.
渭城曲
渭城朝雨浥轻尘，
客舍青青柳色新。
劝君更尽一杯酒，
西出阳关无故人。
On to the folk-song-style poems in this form. Weicheng (“city on the Wei”) was a few kilometers west/upstream of Chang’an. (Possibly important overtone: it was the capital of the Qin kingdom then dynasty before that was overthrown.) The willows imply a parting, confirmed in the next lines. Yang Pass, on the Silk Road somewhat to the west, near Dunhuang, Gansu, was the border between the central and frontier provinces.
—L.
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Date: 12 April 2020 04:21 (UTC)no subject
Date: 12 April 2020 19:47 (UTC)