Poem: 念奴娇 by 苏轼 (Nian Nu Jiao by Su Shi)
Here’s a famous poem and some English translation for the Chinese challenged.
念奴娇·赤壁怀古
苏轼
大江东去，浪淘尽，千古风流人物。
故垒西边，人道是：三国周郎赤壁。
乱石穿空，惊涛拍岸，卷起千堆雪。
江山如画，一时多少豪杰。
遥想公瑾当年，小乔初嫁了，雄姿英发。
羽扇纶巾，谈笑间，樯橹灰飞烟灭。
故国神游，多情应笑我，早生华发。
人生如梦，一尊还酹江月。
Here’s a (more or less literal) English translation of the poem by poet Su Shi (no not sushi!!)
For thousands of years, the wave of the eastward flowing YangTze River has been washing away all the great heroes of the past.
And to the west of the old encampment, people’s concensus was, “It is at this Red Cliff that Zhou Yu defeated Cao Cao‘s army.”
Around uneven steeps of the rocky walls that reaches the sky, the huge waves beating against the river banks burst into a fascinating display almost like thousands of layers of snow.
In such picturesque landscape, how many talented heroes had gathering there then?
Remember those days, where Zhou Yu and his wife Xiao Qiao had just been married? He was beaming with pride.
Holding his feather fan and wearing a head turban, Zhou Yu chatted and joked as he watched numerous war ships sent by Cao Cao burn between the thick flames into ashes.
Traveling these battlefields of old, I guess you can make fun of me for being overly sentimental about it, maybe that’s why I have white hair even though I’m young…
[Sigh] Our entire lifetime is just like one long dream. Let’s drink to the moon over the river.
The poem is written in 1082, so it was some 800 years about the actual lifetime of Zhou Yu. Such nostalgic, lyrical and stylistic writing was considered “revolutionary” for its time. On the one hand, Su Shi admired Zhuo Yu for being so talented for his age (he was like in his twenties when he led the army), at the same time he didn’t think there was much to such a hero when all of us die anyway (thus the toast to the moon).
Anyway, I wrote this coz a friend (of western education) asked about my name, I thought I’d share a bit more about the character where my parents picked the words from, as illustrated by a poet that I like, in a poem that also sort of reflect my own state of mind now (feeling unaccomplished hahaha). Feel free to ask more questions if you need more English explanations.
References (for those of you who needs a complete dose of Chinese explanation of the poem): Baidu Baike | Da Ji Yuan | Baidu Tieba
