May 18, 2004 - 12:24 p.m.

--- Recalling Antiquity at Red Cliff
 BATTLE OF THE RED CLIFF      Su Shi

1. The great river surges east,
    The great river rolls on to the east,
     The Yangtze flows east
2. Its waves have scoured away 
    Waves washing away
     Washing away
3. Since time began all traces of heroic men. 
    All the men of untrammeled spirit of a thousand ages.
     A thousand ages of great men
4. The western side of the old fort
    To the west of the ancient rampart,
     West of the ramparts -- 
5. Was once, so people say,
    They say,
     People say --
6. Known as the Red Cliff of Zhou of the Three Kingdoms.
    Is the Red Cliff of the Three Kingdoms where Zhou won the battle.
     Are the fables Red Cliffs of young Chou of the Three Kingdoms
7. With piled-up rocks to stab the sky 
    Random rocks pierce the air,
     Rebellious rocks pierce the sky
8. And waves to shake them thunderously 
    Startling billows crashing upon the banks,
     Frightening waves rip the bank
9. Churning the frothy mass to mounds of snow,
    Hurling up a thousand heaps of snow.
     The backwash churns vast snowy swells --
10.It's like a masterpiece in paint. 
    Vivid as a picture, the river and the mountains,
     River and mountains like a painting
11.Those ages hide how many a hero!
    How many heroes they once held!
     how many heroes passed them, once ...


12.Think back to those old days;
    Imagine Zhou Yu in the prime of his days
     Think back to those years, Chou Yu --
13.that first year when Zhou Yu had just  married  the Young Qiao. 
    When the Younger Qiao had just married him: 
     Just married to the younger Chiao --
14.Then, what a hero he became! 
    His manly air and brilliant wit!
     Brave, brilliant
15.With waving fan and silken cap 
    Feather fan in hand, silk-turbaned, 
     With plumed fan, silk kerchief
16.He talked and laughed at ease 
    Amid chatting and laughing
     Laughed and talked
17.While masts and oars were blotted out in smoke and flame! 
    He turned the powerful enemy into flying ashes and vanishing smoke.
     While masts and oars vanished to flying ash and smoke!
18.My wits that stray to realms of old 
    As my spirit wanders to the ancient kingdom,
     I roam through ancient realms
19.Deserve the scorn of all who feel; 
    I may be well laughed at for being so sentimental
     Absurdly moved
20.Years pass, and hair grows white so soon.
    And growing grey hair so soon!
     Turn gray too soon --
21.Though a man's life is like a dream,
    Man's life is like a dream ---
     A man's life passes like a dream --
22.One toast continues still -- the River and the Moon! 
    Let me pour a libation to the river moon.
     Pour out a cup then, to the river, and the moon.




http://www.oash.com/read/poem/china/haofang.html
"Su Shi's manner of presentation is often to emphasize on personal feelings
in the milieu of the universally shared knowledge of history, heaven and
earth.  In this poem he used the river-wave-mountain images in the opening
lines to provide a powerful poetic setting.  Thus the poet offers a
heroic as well as tragic vision of history against the background of the
majesty of Nature.  The great river is a symbol of the passage of time ---
eternity of the universe --- and no matter how heroic or elegant the men
in history had been, being washed away is the inevitable and invariable
fate for everyone.  In lines 4 to 9, the poet continues to juxtapose human
vulnerability with the Nature's permanence.  The effect of empathy is
conveyed when the rocks are said to "pierce" the air, and the billows to
slap the banks and "roll up a thousand heaps of snow", as if the movement
of the great river and the mountains were the turbulent movements of
history.  Lines 10 and 11 emphasize the contrast between the eternal
beauty of Nature and the heroic episodes in history.  Though the latter
were momentous at a time in human terms, they were pale in significance
against the eternity of Nature. The second stanza further explores the
mortality and temporality of the human world.  Lines 12 to 16 are gentle
contemplations of the past.  The waning of heroes in the inexorable flow
of time is a truly sad thought, but the tone of the poem is not pathetic
but spirited and stimulating.  The concluding lines are philosophical: the
worldly life is but a dream, we can only admire and revere the great river
--- Nature --- by pouring a libation to it.  If the reality in life is one
of care and constraints, it is the flowing river that will free the self
from this world.  In this poem the poet allows his imagination free play,
and through this creative process he combines life and art in one.  This
self-emotional realization through poetry marks the most unique function
of lyric poetry ("Ci yan qing": Lyrics expresses emotions).  It is this
kind of instantaneous lyrical expressions that form the centre of Su Shi's
ci poems; all of life experiences are internalized and refashioned into
aesthetic vision. 
     The other sense of "Hao Fang" --- disregard for the conventional
prosody ---, to some extent though , is also well illustrated in the poem.
Out of the twenty-two lines, Su Shi altered the required number of
characters in six lines10.  The second and third lines are
conventionally divided into five and four characters, but the poet
changed them into three and six.  In the second stanza, the second and
the third lines have four and five characters in the original song
meter, and Su Shi reversed the order into five and four.  The same
happens to the seventh and eighth lines of the second stanza, too.
This is a good example to show that as a Hao Fang ci poet Su Shi would
not allow metrical niceties to hamper the smooth flow of his mind, but
would rather vary the syntax and the rhythm according to the drift of
his thought.  Consequently, this makes the syntax more flexible and
allows him more freedom in enjambment." enjambment enjambment enjambment enjambmentenjambment enjambment 
enjambment enjambmentenjambment 
enjambment enjambment enjambmentenjambment enjambment enjambment enjambmentenjambment 
enjambment enjambment 
enjambmentenjambment enjambment enjambment enjambment.
nian4 nu2 jiao1  chi4 bi4 huai2 gu3 
 念    奴  娇      赤   壁   怀   古

1. 
da4 jiang1 dong1 qu4,lang4 tao2 jin4 qian1 gu3
 大   江     东   去，  浪    淘   尽，   千  古

feng1 liu2 ren2	wu4   
 风     流   人   物。

4.                  5.             6.(3 kingdoms)
gu4 lei3 xi1 bian1,ren2 dao4 shi4,  san1 guo2
故    垒   西  边，   人   道   是，   三  国

6..
zhou1 lang2 chi4 bi4   
 周     郎    赤  壁。

7.
luan4 shi2 beng1 yun2,jing1 tao1 lie4 an4,  juan3
 乱    石    崩    云，  惊    涛    裂  岸，   卷

9.
qi3 qian1 dui1 xue3:   
起    千    堆  雪；

10.                      11.
jiang1 shan1 ru2 hua4, yi1 shi2 duo1 shao3 hao2 jie2   


  江     山   如   画，  一   时   多      少    豪     杰。

12.                                  13.
yao2 xiang3 gong1 jin3 dang1 nian2,xiao3 qiao2 chu1 jia4 le5   
 
 遥      想   公    瑾   当     年，  小   乔      初   嫁  了，


14.                   15.                 16.
xiong2 zi1 ying1 fa1,yu3 shan4 lun2 jin1,  tan2
 雄     姿   英    发，羽   扇    纶    巾，谈

16..          17.
xiao4 jian1,qiang2 lu3	hui1 fei1 yan1 mie4   
 笑     间，   强    虏   灰    飞   烟   灭。

18.                   19.
gu4 guo2 shen2 you2, duo1 qing2 ying4 xiao4 wo3  
 故  国    神    游，  多    情     应   笑     我，

20.
zao3 sheng1 hua2 fa3   
早      生    华   发。

21.                     22.
ren2 sheng1 ru2	meng4, yi1 zun1 huan2 lei4 jiang1 yue4   

人     生     如   梦，  一   尊    还    酹     江     月。



 
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