Li Bai makes a martial declaration

When the going gets tough, the tough write brilliant banqueting toasts

This image comes from a Viking tour company.

Song of the Maestro of Fufeng
Li Bai

April in Luoyang, alien sand is flying,
Inside the walls, the citizens are wailing.
Under Heaven Bridge, blood-red the water,
And bones lie heaped like tousled hemp.
My way led me east, to ancient Wu,
The fog of war on the land made it longer.
I travelled towards a sun that stirs
Dawn choruses of crows, as watchmen
Sweep the flowers that fell since it set.
But here the scholar trees and weeping willows
Are stroking well-guards streaked with gold,
And we will down the drinks provided
In prodigious measure by this man, the Maestro!
The Maestro of Fufeng is a marvel of the world:
When his mind is set, the mountains must move.
A strongman and a statesman,
But no bullying brute who abuses his strength,
Nor a stickler for ceremony when the drinking starts!
There are fancy dishes with fine delicacies
For scores of warriors, with songs from Wu,
And performers from Zhao, perfumed fragrantly.
Yuan and Chang, Chun and Ling,
Were patrons who supported their states at war,
The joy they took in generosity
Is fully known by my Fufeng benefactor.
They each kept three thousand soldiers,
But who will repay his host tomorrow?
I bare my long blade! I fix my fierce brows,
My resolve is revealed, like a white rock in the river.
So I take helmet from head, laugh for my lord,
I’ll drink my lord’s dram, and sing for my supper.
Recall Zhang Liang, who learned the craft
Of strategy from Master Yellow Stone,
He vanquished his enemies; after the victory,
Retreated with the monk, Red Pine.
No monk for me. My war’s not done.
Who but Yellow Stone understands my heart!

李白  扶风豪士歌
洛阳三月飞胡沙，洛阳城中人怨嗟。
天津流水波赤血，白骨相撑如乱麻。
我亦东奔向吴国，浮云四塞道路赊。
东方日出啼早鸦，城门人开扫落花。
梧桐杨柳拂金井，来醉扶风豪士家。
扶风豪士天下奇，意气相倾山可移。
作人不倚将军势，饮酒岂顾尚书期。
雕盘绮食会众客，吴歌赵舞香风吹。
原尝春陵六国时，开心写意君所知。
堂中各有三千士，明日报恩知是谁？
抚长剑，一扬眉，清水白石何离离。
脱吾帽，向君笑；饮君酒，为君吟。
张良未逐赤松去，桥边黄石知我心。

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An Lushan’s rebellion had left the Tang Empire in chaos. Li Bai was travelling to find the court and offer his service.

The Maestro of Fufeng may have been a man named Dou Jiabin, who was from Fufeng (about 100km west of Chang’an), but was serving at the time as assistant magistrate in Liyang, near to Suzhou. Li Bai regarded him as a generous free-spirited friend.

Luoyang: Luoyang was still regarded as one of the capitals of the empire (it had been the capital during the Han Dynasty), and it had fallen to An Lushan.

Heaven Bridge: A landmark in the Luoyang palace complex.

Ancient Wu: The old state of Wu was around the lower reaches of the Yangtze. Liyang, where we think this poem was composed and delivered, was in Wu.

Songs from Wu, performers from Zhao: Wu songs were the loveliest, Zhao dancers the prettiest. The names Wu and Zhao here do not have very specific geographical implications; they simply imply that the entertainment is high quality.

Yuan, Chang, Chun, Ling: At the end of the Warring States period, 1,000 years before, the state of Qin managed to break the balance of power, and started a series of military campaigns that would end in the unification of China (221BCE). Citizens of the other states realised the danger, and four patrons distinguished themselves by assembling and supporting men who could defend their respective nations: Ping Yuan (State of Zhao), Meng Chang (Qi), Chun Shen (Chu), and Xin Ling (Wei).

Zhang Liang was a hero of the Han Dynasty. He came from the state of Han, and lost his family home when Qin defeated Han to unify China. Later Zhang impressed a magical stone (Yellow Stone) with his humility and good character, so Yellow Stone, in the guise of an old man, gave him a secret book of military strategy. Zhang later put this strategy to use helping the Liu family to overthrow the Qin Empire and found the Han Dynasty. Li Bai is suggesting that he, too, has learned military strategy, and will use it to help the rightful rulers (the Tang royal family) defeat the rebellion.

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The goal with this translation was to use the alliterative meter developed by Seamus Heaney for his Beowulf. I haven’t managed to follow it perfectly, but it has a nice feel that works well for this poem - a combination of the martial and courtly that I was struggling to capture in other meters. Beowulf is a great parallel text for this one: full of descriptions of fine things, oaths, and stories of past heroes. I tried to pick up something from Heaney’s diction, to give the poem an extra jolt of energy. Military poetry has not been favoured by Chinese editors or English translators, and so far as I can tell, I’m the first person to translate this particular poem in full.

I came to it by way of the animated movie Chang’an, a biopic of Li Bai which I’ve written about before and is very much worth a watch, if you enjoy these poems. In that movie, a few lines from near the end of the poem are used out of context, but in a way that still seems very true to their spirit.

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A final note of thanks to all of you for reading. 1,000 people have now signed up to my Substack, which is frankly astonishing. It remains privilege to share these poems with all of you, and to hope that you gain a little joy from them. I believe in mixing cultures and ideas ruthlessly and recklessly, so I hope that I’m helping Tang poetry to step outside its traditional place in the classrooms of the Chinese world. It should be in the coffee shops of London, the beaches of Miami (no shortage of people missing home there), or maybe even the churches of Ireland. Thank you for reading, thank you for commenting, thank you for sharing, but thank you for reading. Reading, reading, reading the words, reading them out loud, singing them and chanting them, or silently reading. Thanks!