BOOKMARK

Joyful Transition Oriole: Moon Waves Seem to Drip

By Shi Dazu Song Dynasty

English Poetic Translation

The moonlight seems to drip in liquid waves.
Gazing up, the jade pot heaven feels so near, untouched by earthly dust.
Kingfisher eyes circle blooms, ice-silk threads weave white damask, while stellar pathways align their precious beams.
Pity my poetry-thinned frame, my wine-worn soul, unable to embrace such overwhelming spring.
Most wayward of all:
once trailing fragrance and chasing candlelight, I kept company with wild roisterers.
Footprints.
Forgotten memories now.
Du Lang has grown old; how can he bear to hear the east wind's flute?
Willow gardens where lamps burn thin, plum halls where lingering snow remains—who is left to pour for me the emerald spring wine?
Old passions still unbound, I find myself reliving those youthful wanderings.
Yet I fear, terribly, that I might fail the jade-fair one waiting by the cold night curtain.

Classical Chinese & Pinyin

月波疑滴。
望玉壺天近，了無塵隔。
翠眼圈花，冰絲織練，黃道寶光相直。
自憐詩酒瘦，難應接、許多春色。
最無賴，是隨香趁燭，曾伴狂客。
蹤跡。
謾記憶。
老了杜郎，忍聽東風笛。
柳院燈疏，梅廳雪在，誰與細傾春碧。
舊情拘未定，猶自學、當年遊歷。
怕萬一，誤玉人、夜寒簾隙。

yuè bō yí dī.
wàng yù hú tiān jìn, liǎo wú chén gé.
cuì yǎn juān huā, bīng sī zhī liàn, huáng dào bǎo guāng xiāng zhí.
zì lián shī jiǔ shòu, nán yìng jiē, xǔ duō chūn sè.
zuì wú lài, shì suí xiāng chèn zhú, céng bàn kuáng kè.
zōng jī.
màn jì yì.
lǎo le dù láng, rěn tīng dōng fēng dí.
liǔ yuàn dēng shū, méi tīng xuě zài, shuí yǔ xì qīng chūn bì.
jiù qíng jū wèi dìng, yóu zì xué, dāng nián yóu lì.
pà wàn yī, wù yù rén, yè hán lián xì.

Philological Direct Translation

Moon waves suspect drip.
Looking jade pot heaven near, entirely no dust partition.
Kingfisher eyes encircle flowers, ice silk weaves white damask, yellow path precious light mutually straight.
Self pity poetry wine thin, hard accommodate, so many spring colors.
Most unruly, is following fragrance chasing candles, once accompanied mad guest.
Footprints.
Vainly remember.
Aged Du lang, endure hearing east wind flute.
Willow courtyard lamp sparse, plum hall snow present, who with fine pour spring jade.
Old affections bound not yet fixed, still self learning, that year wander travel.
Fear ten thousand one, mistake jade person, night cold curtain gap.

Scholarly Exegesis & Cultural Commentary

I. Formal Poetic Architecture & Meter

This masterpiece is composed under the Song lyric tune titled Joyful Transition Oriole, a double-stanza form characterized by an intricate interlacing of short exclamation phrases and extended descriptive periods. The rhyme scheme shifts fluidly across the breaks, capturing the unstable emotional undercurrents of the speaker. The rhythmic architecture relies heavily on tight internal contrasts, balancing the crystalline stillness of celestial imagery against the feverish, transient pulses of earthly memory.

II. Historical Chronology & Existential Impulse

Authored during the later decades of the Southern Song Dynasty, this lyric reflects the acute melancholic displacement experienced by literati navigating the cultured yet fragile urban milieu of Lin'an. Shi Dazu, renowned for his exquisite brushwork and sensory acuity, channels the quintessential Southern Song obsession with fading youth, metropolitan nostalgia, and the bittersweet burden of past romantic escapades set against an indifferent, resurgent spring.

III. Line-by-Line Exegesis & Allusion Decoding

The poem unfolds as an internal dialogue between the crystalline purity of the cosmos and the weary, fragmented memory of an aging aesthete. Across the stanzas, the lyric moves from cosmic contemplation to deeply personal introspection.

Lines 1-2 (Opening Couplet): The speaker observes the nocturnal luminance, where the celestial sphere feels remarkably close and immaculate, untainted by worldly grime.
Lines 3-4 (First Antithetical Turn): The rich sensory tapestry of spring unfolds through brilliant metaphors of kingfisher eyes and ice-silk weaves, establishing a dazzling visual surface.
Lines 5-6 (Second Antithetical Turn / Climax): The speaker turns inward, contrasting the vibrant external spring with his own frail, poetry-thinned and wine-worn physique.
Closing Lines (Resolving Couplet): The lyric culminates in a poignant anxiety over unfulfilled romance and the haunting echoes of past wanderings in the cold night air.

IV. Cultural Symbolism & Key Metaphors

The poem employs several foundational cultural tokens of the classical literary tradition to articulate psychological depth.

Jade Pot: Symbolizes the immaculate, freezing clarity of the moon and the cosmic void, contrasting sharply with human emotional turbulence.
Du Lang: An indirect self-reference invoking the famous Tang dynasty poet Du Mu, famed for his romantic dissipation and melancholy reflection on bygone days in Yangzhou.

V. Philosophical Core & Global Resonance

At its core, the lyric synthesizes a deeply Daoist sensitivity to transience with the intense, melancholic romanticism characteristic of the Southern Song literati. The speaker's inability to match the overwhelming vitality of spring highlights the universal tragedy of human aging set against the eternal, indifferent renewal of the natural world. This tension between ephemeral human desire and immutable cosmic time speaks across centuries to the heart of global lyrical expression.