The Ballad of the Army Carts Du Fu Squeals from war horses, rumbling carts, With quivers and bows at their waists, the men march, As parents and children and wives say farewells, The churning dust hides Xianyang Bridge's great arch. They cling and they kick and they clutch and they wail, Cloud-piercing wails as each loved one departs. A traveller questions one man marching by, "The draft never stops," is his only reply. "At fifteen they station us north on the river, At forty out west on the farms for supply. We leave when the elders still help tie our turbans, Come back with hair white, then return to the line. Out in the borders the blood's like a sea. 'Keep going!' the Emperor Wu has decreed. Haven't you heard?
This is a great one - I always thought Du Fu's "Ballad of the Army Carts" would pair well with Bai Juyi's brutal ballad about the old man with the shattered arm:
夜深不敢使人知，偷將大石錘折臂。
張弓簸旗俱不堪，從茲始免徵雲南。
骨碎筋傷非不苦，且圖揀退歸鄉土。
Late at night, so no one else would see,
I smashed my arm with a rock until it snapped.
Useless now for bow or banner,
but good enough to get me out of Yunnan.
Bones shattered, tendons ripped -- it hurt, of course,
In ‘07 I was walking around Chengdu and stumbled upon the complex that said it was DuFu’s home. Walking through the grounds, the courtyard, reading his poetry, drinking tea at a table- I was blow away by his poetry. I do think of the Chinese zither- type instrument that has it’s haunting quality as a perfect match for this type of poetry.
Yes, it's a lovely complex. I'm a bit afraid to go back - as China's got richer, more people are travelling, and I'm worried that it will be absolutely packed with visitors, which might take away from the point of the place somewhat. But it's amazing to sit there and think, yes, this is (maybe) where a refugee poet 1000+ years ago settled for a little while, and created absolute masterpieces.
This particular poem predates his thatched cottage days. There was still an emperor at this point, and Du Fu was trying to persuade him to give up on his incessant wars. Emperor Xuanzong's wars were actually being fought in the south, on the Sichuan/Yunnan border, but it would have been too on-the-nose to mention that directly. So Du uses the Han Dynasty wars of expansion in Tibet as a stand-in to make the same point: the war is draining the country.
You are really talented, like poet laureate talented。 I hope you write your own poems since i dont think any famous award recognizes poetic translations. I would like to be wrong, you really rang that bell!!
That's a wonderful recommendation. That melody has the quality I love in certain Christmas carols, where the lyrics are (mainly) uplifting, but the tune has these minor inflections that make it sound like a dirge (like God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen). That contrast seems to be part of what makes them sound so powerful. I think you're right that this kind of tune could accommodate the level of seriousness that Du Fu is trying to convey here.
In 2003, I came across this book in an short illustrated volume (by John Groth) at the center table in a small used bookstore. The owner (who I had come to know) looked at me with a gleam in his eye and said "you're going to like this".
Just came across this again and it punches just as hard as before. The one shift in perspective is that I had to write a couple very carefully worded email remonstrances. And that was in a situation where the worst that would happen is a “shut up and worry about your own projects.”
Du Fu had balls of steel to write this in Imperial China.
"This poem needs no commentary." To true.
This is a great one - I always thought Du Fu's "Ballad of the Army Carts" would pair well with Bai Juyi's brutal ballad about the old man with the shattered arm:
夜深不敢使人知，偷將大石錘折臂。
張弓簸旗俱不堪，從茲始免徵雲南。
骨碎筋傷非不苦，且圖揀退歸鄉土。
Late at night, so no one else would see,
I smashed my arm with a rock until it snapped.
Useless now for bow or banner,
but good enough to get me out of Yunnan.
Bones shattered, tendons ripped -- it hurt, of course,
But I was set on getting out. On getting home.
That's fantastic, thank you!
Brilliant!
In ‘07 I was walking around Chengdu and stumbled upon the complex that said it was DuFu’s home. Walking through the grounds, the courtyard, reading his poetry, drinking tea at a table- I was blow away by his poetry. I do think of the Chinese zither- type instrument that has it’s haunting quality as a perfect match for this type of poetry.
Yes, it's a lovely complex. I'm a bit afraid to go back - as China's got richer, more people are travelling, and I'm worried that it will be absolutely packed with visitors, which might take away from the point of the place somewhat. But it's amazing to sit there and think, yes, this is (maybe) where a refugee poet 1000+ years ago settled for a little while, and created absolute masterpieces.
This particular poem predates his thatched cottage days. There was still an emperor at this point, and Du Fu was trying to persuade him to give up on his incessant wars. Emperor Xuanzong's wars were actually being fought in the south, on the Sichuan/Yunnan border, but it would have been too on-the-nose to mention that directly. So Du uses the Han Dynasty wars of expansion in Tibet as a stand-in to make the same point: the war is draining the country.
You are really talented, like poet laureate talented。 I hope you write your own poems since i dont think any famous award recognizes poetic translations. I would like to be wrong, you really rang that bell!!
You have to play with wording and meter, but the old Scottish psalm tune “St. Kilda” works well for the tone. Haunting, plaintive.
That's a wonderful recommendation. That melody has the quality I love in certain Christmas carols, where the lyrics are (mainly) uplifting, but the tune has these minor inflections that make it sound like a dirge (like God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen). That contrast seems to be part of what makes them sound so powerful. I think you're right that this kind of tune could accommodate the level of seriousness that Du Fu is trying to convey here.
I came here to say that this poem would be a great tonal fit for a lot of Scottish folk music, but didn't have any specific recommendations.
Powerful. This ballad reminds me of Mark Twain's "The War Prayer".
Thank you. I'd never read that before, and it's gorgeous.
In 2003, I came across this book in an short illustrated volume (by John Groth) at the center table in a small used bookstore. The owner (who I had come to know) looked at me with a gleam in his eye and said "you're going to like this".
https://archive.org/details/warprayer0000mark/mode/2up
Just came across this again and it punches just as hard as before. The one shift in perspective is that I had to write a couple very carefully worded email remonstrances. And that was in a situation where the worst that would happen is a “shut up and worry about your own projects.”
Du Fu had balls of steel to write this in Imperial China.