Liang zhou ci 凉 州 词 by Wang Han 王翰
葡萄美酒夜光杯
欲饮琵琶马上催
醉卧沙场君莫笑
古来征战几人回
葡萄美酒夜光杯
pú tao měi jiǔ yè guāng bēi
欲饮琵琶马上催
yù yǐn pí pa mǎ shàng cuī
醉卧沙场君莫笑
zuì wò shā chǎng jūn mò xiào
古来征战几人回
gǔ lái zhēng zhàn jǐ rén huí
pú tao měi jiǔ yè guāng bēi
葡萄美酒夜光杯
Grape beautiful wine ye guang glass
yù yǐn pí pa mǎ shàng cuī
欲饮琵琶马上催
To desire/wish pi pa urgently hastens
zuì wò shā chǎng jūn mò xiào
醉卧沙场君莫笑
intoxicated to lie/crouch battleground do not laugh
gǔ lái zhēng zhàn jǐ rén huí
古来征战几人回
since ancient times expeditions (wars) few people (soldiers) return
This is a famous poem written by Wang Han during the Tang dynasty.
The whole poem is bold and unconstrained, but it does have some bleak feeling in the end.
This is a poem about the soldiers who went to war at border areas of China. They know they will face a hard life, but they smile to face this.
葡萄美酒夜光杯 - The ye guang glass is full of red wine (it was famous glass in Jia Yu Guan city). This tells you where the man was fighting, at Jia Yu Guan, which was far a away and remote.
欲饮琵琶马上催 - I want to stop and drink the wine, but the calling to war pi pa is sounding and I must hurry away to fight. (The pi pa is a musical instrument).
醉卧沙场君莫笑 - Please don’t laugh at me if I am drunk. I am not afraid, but it is the way I face war and the loneliness.
古 来征战几人回 - From ancient times to now, how many soldiers can go back home after the war? (In other words, the soldier knows that he will probably die at the war and never return home to see his family again, yet he knows he must fight to protect his large family (his country) and his small family (his parents, wife and children).
Ye guang full of red wine,
The war pi pa is calling, can’t stop to drink.
Please don’t laugh; war and loneliness accompany me,
From ancient times, how many return, how many return?
This is Jia Yu Guan (at the time is was on the outer boundary of China)
Liang zhou 凉 州 is the title of the poem
ci 词 is the form of the poem
Xiaosui reciting Liang Zhou ci by Wang Han
Meng Haoran 孟浩然 (689 or 691 – 740) was a Chinese poet during the Tang Dynasty. Unsuccessful in his official career, he mainly lived in and wrote about his birthplace.
The eldest of the major High Tang poets, he was born in Xiangyang, Hubei, and was strongly attached to the area. He lived there almost all his life, and its landscape, history and legends are the subjects of many of his poems. Particularly prominent are Nanshan (or South Mountain, his family seat) and Lumen Shan, where he briefly lived in retreat.
He had an unsuccessful civil service career, passing the Jinshi exam late, at the age of 39. He received his first and last position three years before his death, but resigned after less than a year.
He is often bracketed with Wang Wei, due to the friendship they shared and their prominence as landscape poets. In fact, Haoran composed several poems about Wei and their separation. While Wei focused on the natural world, in particular the solitude and reprieve it granted from human life along with the scale of the natural world, Meng Haoran focuses more on foreground details and human life.
His works are generally considered less consistently successful than Wang's.
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