Xu Zhimo's Autumn Moon 除志摩的『秋月』

I do not know how many poems have been written about the moon by Chinese and other poets.  In China, the chances of poets having written something or other about the moon in autumn is probably astronomically greater because of a special institution celebrated by every one in China: the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is a clear mark of Xu Zhimo's genius that nothwithstanding such enormous output from the past on this subject, he still manages to come up with a completely new type of autumn moon, with a completely new type of feeling. The poem and my translation follows.

 

           秋月                                                Autumn Moon

一樣是月色                                         It's the same moonlight

今晚上的，因為我們都在抬頭看-- Tonight's, because we're both lifting our gaze to it--

看它，一輪腴滿的嫵媚，                 Look at it, a roundish spill of allure;

從烏黑得如同暴徒一般的                 Rising from a pile of clouds            

雲唯裏昇起--                                      Black as a violent mob--

看得格外的亮，分外的圓。            It looks extra bright, especially round

它展開在道路上，                            It spreads over the paths,

它飄閃在水面上，                            It floats shimmering upon the surface of the water.

它沈浸在                                            It is sunk into

水草盤結得如同憂愁船的                the reeds woven  into a boat of sorrow 

水底，                                                underneath the water

它睥睨在古城的雉碟上，  It's looking sideways from the bird disc upon the ancient town

萬千的城磚在它的清亮中， thousands of townwall bricks bathed in its brightness

呼吸，                                                are breathing,

它撫摩着                                           caressing,

錯落在城廂外內的墓墟，the tombs randomly dotting the boxes of the town within and without

在宿鳥的斷續的呼聲裏，in the intermittent cries of the nesting birds

想見新舊的鬼，               one could see ghosts new and old

也和我們似的相依偎的站着，like us, leaning against each other, standing

眼珠放着光，                     their pupils all bright

咀嚼着徹骨的涼：             chewing bone-chilling cold:

銀色的纏綿的詩情             endlessly entwining poetic feelings in silver 

如同水面的星燐，             like starry phosphors above the surface of the water

在露盈盈的空中飛舞。     dancing in dewy air.

聽那四野的吟聲--               listening to the sighs of the fields

永恆的悲微的諧和，          eternal and slightly sad harmony,

悲哀揉和着歡暢，              sorrow mixed with joy,

怨仇與恩愛，                      blame and vengeance with gratefulnss and love,

晦冥交抱着火電，              darkness embracing fire and electricity

在這繩的秋夜與秋野的 in this pale expanse 

蒼茫中，            of enmeshing autumnal night and autumnal landscape 

「解化」的偉大                the magnificence of "resolution"

在一切纖微的深處           unfurling 

展開了                                in the delicacy of the deep 

嬰兒的微笑。                    the smile of an infant.

The poet appears to be doing some moon gazing with his lover. He compares the darkness of the sky to the darkness of the soul of those accustomed to violence so that the moon appears all that brighter and more serene. He sees the moonlight throwing its net of silver over the tombs littered here and there in no particular order within and outside of the old townof the moon and the sound of the nesting birds evokes images of ghost. But even the ghost are hovering together like lovers in the moonlight but there in the netherworld, the light of the moon does not warm, leaving only a bone-chilling cold. The only thing which appear to take to wings are the poet's poetic emotions. In the smile of the infant, we forget all about the conflicts between our persoal, family or social group. As he says, an infant's smile is sufficient to to dissolve/transform all the details into a grand picture of liberation.