Lodging at the Official Residence
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
独宿江城蜡炬残。
永夜角声悲自语，
中天月色好谁看。
风尘荏苒音书绝，
关塞萧条行路难。
已忍伶俜十年事，
强移栖息一枝安。
English translation
Clear autumn: by the headquarters well the paulownia is cold, lodging alone in the river city, the candle burns low.
All night the bugle's voice mourns, as if speaking to itself, the moon at mid-sky is lovely, but who is there to see?
In wind and dust the time drags on, all letters cut off, the passes are desolate, the roads hard to travel.
Ten years I have borne this loneliness, I force myself to rest, content with a single branch.
Meaning
The paulownia shudders in the autumn night wind; only the dying light of a candle keeps me company in my loneliness.
Through the long night the bugle notes sound stern and mournful, as though speaking to themselves; the moonlight in the sky is fair, yet who is there to share it with me?
Time slips away; where can I seek word of my kin? The frontier passes lie bleak and the road home is hard to find.
Ten years of wandering life I have borne; to settle my household here is but a makeshift shelter.
Background
Read the background
This poem dates from the sixth month of 764, the second year of the Guangde era of Emperor Daizong of Tang, when Yan Wu, newly appointed Governor of Chengdu and concurrently Military Governor of Jiannan, recommended Du Fu as an adviser in the military governor's office. The poem itself was written in the autumn of that same year. The "lodging at headquarters" of the title means spending the night at the military governor's headquarters. Because everyone else had gone home, he was often, as the poem says, "sleeping alone."