楓橋夜泊 original text
Stay close to the sentence.
The moon sets, crows cry, frost fills the sky.
River maples and the fisherman’s fire face sorrowful sleep.
Outside Gusu city, Cold Mountain Temple,
at midnight, the sound of bells reaches the traveller’s boat.
Let the image breathe.
The moon sinks, crows call, frost whitens the sky.
By river maples and a fisherman’s lamp, I lie awake in sorrow.
Outside the walls of Gusu, Cold Mountain Temple
sends its midnight bell across the water to my boat.
What to know
The poem presents travel through a sequence of sensory impressions rather than explanation. The final bell gives the scene a destination, carrying sound from the temple across the water and into the traveller’s sleeplessness.
What to notice
Nearly every image belongs to a different sense. The moon and frost shape the eye, crows and bells shape the ear, and the cold night gives the whole poem a physical temperature. The landscape becomes a companion to homesickness.
Three useful phrases.
- 夜泊
- to moor or anchor for the night
- 愁眠
- sleep troubled or shadowed by sorrow
- 客船
- a traveller’s boat, with 客 marking the speaker as an outsider