Song of Lasting Regret lines 31-36, Bai Juyi

[lnhammer]

Then Yuyang drums and scabbards shook the earth as they came—
Shock broke the song of Rainbow Skirts and Feather Robes
As under palace towers smoke and dust were born:
Thousands of chariots, ten-thousand riders drove southwest.
His emerald banners shook as they fled and stopped again
Out the capital’s western gate for more than a hundred li.

渔阳鞞鼓动地来，
惊破霓裳羽衣曲。
九重城阙烟尘生，
千乘万骑西南行。
翠华摇摇行复止，
西出都门百馀里。

Another installment. And so the honeymoon ends. An Lushan, ambitious general and adoptive son of Yang Guifei, was the military governor of Yuyang county (now part of Beijing) in the northeast frontier when he began his 755 rebellion. Rainbow Skirts and Feather Robes was a dance number, and the emperor’s traveling regalia had emerald-colored (or kingfisher-feathered) decorations on his banners. Idiom: palace is literally "nine-layered walls." Lost in translation: The towers are specifically watchtowers. Editorial aside: for flow, I want to reorder those first four lines (to 2-1-4-3).

---L.

Comments

[sartorias]

This is terrific, so cinematic!

[lnhammer]

There’s more of that to come!