Written on New Year's Eve on the Road in Bashan
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
羁危万里身。
乱山残雪夜，
孤烛异乡人。
渐与骨肉远，
转于僮仆亲。
那堪正飘泊，
明日岁华新。
English translation
Far and long, the roads of the three Ba, a traveler in peril, ten thousand li from home.
Chaotic hills, a night of leftover snow, a single candle, a man in a strange land.
Ever farther from my own flesh and blood, I turn and grow close to my servant boy.
How can I bear to be still drifting, when tomorrow the year begins anew?
Meaning
I trudge along the rugged and endless roads of the Three Ba, a stranger lodging in a perilous place ten thousand li from home.
The last snow on the jumbled peaks glints in the dark night, and a single candle keeps me company, a man in a foreign land.
Because I am ever farther from my dear ones, I have grown closer to my boy servant and my hired man.
It is hard indeed to spend New Year's Eve in wandering, and tomorrow the year will turn and a new year begin.
Background
Read the background
Cui Tu was a southerner who drifted for long stretches through the regions of Hunan and Shu. This poem was written while the poet was taking refuge from the troubles and lodging in Sichuan; the season is the end of the lunar year, but the exact year is hard to establish.