水调歌头·明月几时有 When was the moon ever so bright?

水调歌头·明月几时有

丙辰中秋，欢饮达旦，大醉，作此篇。兼怀子由。

【宋】苏轼

明月几时有，把酒问青天。

不知天上宫阙，今夕是何年？

我欲乘风归去，又恐琼楼玉宇，高处不胜寒。

起舞弄清影，何似在人间！

转朱阁，低绮户，照无眠。

不应有恨，何事长向别时圆？

人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全。

但愿人长久，千里共婵娟。

When was the moon ever so bright?

--to the tune ‘River Rhyme (prelude)’

(I wrote this in 1076 for the Moon Festival as well as for my brother Ziyou

after drinking alone through the night.)

Chinese original: Su Shi ( 11^th Century )

Old En. version: Gordon Osing & Julia Min(1990)

New En. version: Julia Min (2025)

When was the Moon ever so bright?

With a cup in hand filled with wine,

I ask the vast, black-blue Empyrean.

What year is it in Heaven tonight?

Could I be taken there on a wind ride?

But I fear it must be cold up so high

in the riches of the Moon's jade palace.

I’d rather dance a satire to the rhymes,

along with the lonely shadow of mine

for some earthly vibes of humankind.

The Moon drifts past the red pavilion side,

Lowers her cozy gaze across my chamber,

Keeping me awake. Oh Brother, such is life!

It’s been seven years since our last reunion.

And when we’re apart, she’s full and bright!

It’s a spell beyond Heaven and Mankind.

The moon waxes and wanes, dims and shines.

We have ups n downs, welcomes n goodbyes.

May we, now and always, be blissful at heart,

and join under the one Goddess when apart.

Picture retrieved from Google

Notes:

1.     ‘What year …’ : It is believed by the Chinese that three days in Heaven are equal to three years on earth , so the dates on Heaven and Earth differ.

2.     ‘the Moon’: Legend has it that there is a palace called Guang Han on the moon. The goddess Chang E is said to inhabit the moon palace, so she is also called ‘the Moon Goddess.

Appreciation:

For readers, one of the most inspiring sights is watching a great man struggle against adversity, from which his greatest works can arise. And this is a living example.

This masterpiece was written by Su Shi in Mizhou in 1076, a tough time for the poet because of his opposition to the New Law (proposed by Wang Anshi), which was approved and put into effect. Feeling estranged from the Emperor’s favour, he asked to be sent away from the court to serve as Mizhou’s mayor. His wife had left him, and he hadn’t seen his brother in seven years. He yearned to escape into the legendary jade palace of the Moon Goddess, a place of romantic art and beauty, and to live in seclusion away from the turmoil of the Song political scene. Yet, he was also cautious of the cold perfection of that celestial realm. After all, Su Shi is more a man of the world than a Daoist of fairylands.

It's the same tension between the longing for a perfect, secluded artistic ideal and the fearful, human rejection of its lifeless perfection in John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (published 1820). The famous, chilling address ‘Cold Pastoral!’ pictures his "cold perfection of her empire." The urn is a ‘friend to man’ but offers a cold, philosophical consolation ("Beauty is truth...") from its immortal, silent distance. The poet, like Su Shi, ultimately stands in the world of "old age," "generations," and "woe," contemplating but not joining that frozen, perfect realm. In the end, he remains attached to the warm, suffering, and transient world.

Another poet coming to my mind is William Wordsworth, especially in poems like "Tintern Abbey" or "Ode: Intimations of Immortality." He longs for the perfect, seclusive vision of nature he experienced as a youth (a kind of natural "palace"), but later fears the loss of that "celestial light." However, he resolves not in cold artifice but in the "sober coloring" of adult human consciousness, memory, and love—the "world" of mature relationships.

Reference:

1. Our first edition: Blooming Alone in Winter by Gordon Osing, Julia Min, and Huang Haipeng, published by the People's Publication House Henan Province in 1990 (《寒心未肯随春态》戈登.奥赛茵，闵晓红，黄海鹏) --"After Drinking All Night at the Bingchen Autumn Festival":"When was the moon ever so bright? I ask the blue-black empyrean./What year is it in Heaven? What year this evening?/Would that I could be taken there on the wind!/But I fear the cold riches of the jade moon's mansions,/So instead I'll dance a satire to my shadow, like nothing on earth.//The moon alters my red pavilion, threads through the silk door, keeps me awake;/Give-up hating realities, my brother; the moon grows fuller and brighter as we feel losses./ What else is it but sorrows, joys, partings and reunions,/As the moon is clouded or brilliant, empty or brimming./The arrangement is ancient, hardest to those seeking perfection./Now and always, peace to our hearts, sharing the same/far-away Goddess in the One Heaven.//

Pinying and Word-For-Word Translation:

shuǐ diào gē tóu - to the tune of Shuidiaogetou

(bǐng chén zhōng qiū ，huān yǐn dá dàn ，dà zuì ，zuò cǐ piān 。jiān huái zǐ yóu ) - Bingchen year Mid-Autumn Festival, enjoy drinking to the next morning; heavily drunk, compose this ci, also miss Ziyou;

míng yuè jǐ shí yǒu - bright moon when have;

bǎ jiǔ wèn qīng tiān - hold a cup of wine and ask dark-blue sky;

bú zhī tiān shàng gōng què - not know in Heaven Palace;

jīn xī shì hé nián - this evening is what year;

wǒ yù chéng fēng guī qù – I wish to fly on wind to return;

yòu kǒng qióng lóu yù yǔ - but afraid jade towers jade mansions;

gāo chù bú shèng hán - high place not bear the cold;

qǐ wǔ nòng qīng yǐng - start dancing, make fun with my shadows;

hé sì zài rén jiān - what like in human world;

zhuǎn zhū gé - the moon turns around red pavilion;

dī qǐ hù - lowers light into the crafted doors and windows;

zhào wú mián – so much light, no sleep;

bú yīng yǒu hèn – should not have hatred;

hé shì zhǎng xiàng bié shí yuan – why is it often full and bright when we are parted;

rén yǒu bēi huān lí hé – humans have sorrows joys departures reunions;

yuè yǒu yīn qíng yuán quē – the moon is cloudy clear wax or wane;

cǐ shì gǔ nán quán – such has been difficult for perfection since ancient times;

dàn yuàn rén zhǎng jiǔ – only wish we have each other for a long time;

qiān lǐ gòng chán juān -thousand li share Chanjuan;