Mooring at Night by Maple Bridge
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
江枫渔火对愁眠。
姑苏城外寒山寺，
夜半钟声到客船。
English translation
The moon sets, crows cry, frost fills the sky, river maples and fishing lamps face a sleeper's sorrow.
Beyond the walls of Gusu lies Cold Mountain Temple, at midnight its bell reaches the traveler's boat.
Meaning
The moon has set and the crows cry out, and the cold fills the sky; facing the maples by the river and the fishermen's lights on the boats, I lie awake in sorrow.
Beyond the walls of Suzhou, the midnight bell of Cold Mountain Temple reaches the boat where I lie.
Background
Read the background
In the first month of the fourteenth year of the Tianbao era the An Lushan Rebellion broke out. Because the situation in the south was then relatively settled, many men of letters fled to present-day Jiangsu and Zhejiang to escape the troubles, Zhang Ji among them. One autumn night the poet moored his boat at Maple Bridge outside the walls of Suzhou; moved by the scene, he wrote this short poem.