Night in the Pavilion
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
天涯霜雪霁寒宵。
五更鼓角声悲壮，
三峡星河影动摇。
野哭千家闻战伐，
夷歌数处起渔樵。
卧龙跃马终黄土，
人事音书漫寂寥。
English translation
The year draws to its close, light and dark hurry the short days, at the world's end frost and snow clear in the cold night.
At the fifth watch, drum and bugle sound mournful and grand, the Milky Way above the Three Gorges sways its shadow.
Wailing in the wilds from a thousand houses, hearing of war, barbarian songs in a few places, from fishers and woodcutters.
Sleeping Dragon and Leaping Horse have all become yellow earth, human affairs and letters, let them fall silent and still.
Meaning
At the year's end the daylight hours grow ever shorter; on this winter night in Kuizhou, when the frost and snow have ceased, their sheen makes it bright as day.
At the fifth watch the drums and horns of the camp sound more stirring and desolate; the Milky Way is mirrored in the river, wavering in the rushing current.
News of war comes, and the wailing of a thousand households rings across the fields; late at night the Yi songs of fishermen and woodcutters are heard from time to time.
Men of history like Zhuge Liang and Gongsun Shu, wise or foolish alike, have in the end become dry bones in the yellow earth; human affairs and letters must both be left to silence.
Background
Read the background
This poem was written in the winter of 766 (the first year of the Dali era), when Du Fu was lodging at the West Pavilion in Kuizhou. At that time the warlords of Xichuan were locked in ceaseless strife year after year, and the Tubo repeatedly raided the land of Shu. Du Fu's friends Li Bai, Yan Wu, and Gao Shi had all died one after another. Stirred by the times and remembering the past, he wrote this poem.