For Hua Qing
Du Fu
Du Fu
雜曲歌辭 入破第二
錦城絲管日紛紛
半入江風半入雲
此曲衹應天上去
人間能得幾回聞
錦城絲管日紛紛
半入江風半入雲
此曲衹應天上去
人間能得幾回聞
zá qǔ gē cí rù pò dì èr
jǐn chéng sī guǎn rì fēn fēn
bàn rù jiāng fēng bàn rù yún
cǐ qū zhī yìng tiān shàng qù
rén jiān néng dé jǐ huí wén
jǐn chéng sī guǎn rì fēn fēn
bàn rù jiāng fēng bàn rù yún
cǐ qū zhī yìng tiān shàng qù
rén jiān néng dé jǐ huí wén
Jincheng silk flute day mixed
Half enter river wind half enter cloud
This tune only should heaven on go
Human world able get how many times hear
Half enter river wind half enter cloud
This tune only should heaven on go
Human world able get how many times hear
In Jincheng, music of silk and flutes mixes together all day,
Half goes to the river breeze, half goes to the clouds.
Music such as this should only go to heaven above,
In this human world, how many times can it be heard?
Half goes to the river breeze, half goes to the clouds.
Music such as this should only go to heaven above,
In this human world, how many times can it be heard?
View Chinese text in simplified characters.
Notes: Jincheng (‘Brocade City’) is Chengdu. The poem is a, "subtly advisory" warning against General Hua's taste for luxury (Hung p. 179).
This poem is volume (juàn) 227, no. 29 in the Complete Tang Poems (quán táng shī). It is translated as poem CCX in Hung, p.179.
Hung, W. (1952) Tu Fu: China's Greatest Poet. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press.
