Feasting and music on a cold winter's night
It's kind of Christmassy!
Harp Songs Li Qi Our host has laid on wine; tonight we feast, With Guangling's finest here to play for us. The moon lights up the city's restless crows, And bitter wind blows through our coats. The trees Are all festooned with cheerless frost. But we Have copper stoves and fancy candles glow. The maestro plays a folksong, Glassy Pond, And then a love song: Concubine of Chu. The moment that he plays, all movement stops, The listeners silent till the stars grow dim. The place I have to go, the River Huai, Is a thousand miles away; this feast tonight Has made me dream of misty hills where I Could leave official duties far behind. 李颀 琴歌 主人有酒欢今夕，请奏鸣琴广陵客。 月照城头乌半飞，霜凄万木风入衣。 铜炉华烛烛增辉，初弹渌水后楚妃。 一声已动物皆静，四座无言星欲稀。 清淮奉使千余里，敢告云山从此始。
As a translator of poems from China, I have very little to offer in the way of Christmas messages. But this poem from the Tang’s premier chronicler of music, Li Qi, does at least give us a banquet on a winter’s night, with plentiful wine and very familiar music. It sounds pretty much like the way most of us spend Christmas!
Li Qi (690?-751) was a well-connected poet of the high Tang, though not particularly well-documented. He seems to have spent some time on the frontiers, as he wrote some well-received frontier poetry, but is perhaps best remembered now for his lush descriptions of musical performances. Here he combines both elements in a record of musical banquet held just before his departure for a distant post.
Merry Christmas, everyone! Here’s the reading by Cinix.