Poems on the Yellow Sand Road in Xijiang River at Night

Xijiang Moon Night Tour Huangsha Road Middle Section

Author Xin Qiji, Song Dynasty

Translation comparison

The moon on the horizon rose to the top of the tree, scaring away the magpies perched on the branches. The cool evening breeze seems to have spread to cicadas in the distance.

In the fragrance of rice and flowers, people talk about the harvest of a year, and frogs croak in their ears, as if in a bumper harvest year. In the old days, Maodian was near the forest, and the road turned to the stream bridge.

Translation annotation

The bright moon on the horizon rose to the treetops, scaring the magpies perched on the branches. The cool evening breeze seems to bring cicadas in the distance. In the fragrance of rice flowers, people are talking about the harvest year, and there are waves of frogs in their ears, as if talking about the harvest year. There are light clouds in the sky, twinkling stars appear from time to time, and it is raining in front of the mountain. The familiar Maodian hut is still located in the Woods near the Earth Temple. Turning a corner, Maodian suddenly appeared in front of us.

Appreciate related content

Judging from the first two sentences of Xijiang Yue, "The bright moon surprises the magpie, and the breeze crows at midnight", it seems to describe the extremely ordinary scenery such as wind, moon, cicada and magpie. But through the clever combination of the author, the result is unusual at ordinary times. The magpie is flying around the oblique and abrupt branches, not hovering over the ordinary tree heads. Because of the bright moonlight, the magpie was awakened; Magpies flying in fright will naturally cause other branches to shake. At the same time, cicadas have their own time to sing. The chirping at night is different from the neighing under the scorching sun. When the cool wind blows slowly, it is often very quiet. In short, the words "surprised magpie" and "singing cicada" contain the silence in the movement and describe the scenery under the "breeze" and "bright moon" in the middle of the night, which is leisurely and charming.