The Double Seventh Night

In the Autumn Night

Tu Mu

Her candle-light is silvery on her chill bright screen.

Her little silk fan is for fireflies….

She lies watching her staircase cold in the moon,

And two stars parted by the River of Heaven.

（Witter Bynner & Kiang Kang-hu 译）

Autumn Evening

Tu Mu

Silver autumn candlelight chills the painted screen,

A little fan of light silk flaps the streaming fireflies.

Cool as water, the night sheen of the steps into the sky.

She lies and watches the Weaver Girl meet the Herdboy Star.

Autumn Evening

Tu Mu

Silver lantern autumn light chills her painted screen

she swats at passing fireflies with her small silk fan

at night the streets of Heaven look as cool as water

lying down she gazes at the Weaving Maid and Herdboy stars

（Red Pine 译）

Autumn Night

Du Mu

The autumn light and the sliver candle

are cool on the painted screen;

She hits at the swirling fireflies with

a small light silken fan.

In the night sky the Heavenly Steps

appear clear and cold, like water;

She sits and looks at the stars

of the Cowherd and the Weaver.

（Peter Harris 译）

Mid-Autumn Night

Du Mu

A silver candle in autumn lights the cold painted screen;

a light silk fan beats, fireflies flow around it.

In my courtyard, the night sky is clear as water;

I sit and watch Herdboy and Weaver Girl meet.

（Geoffrey R. Waters 译）

Autumn Evening

Du Mu

Red candle make

an autumn light

the painted screen feels chilly

catching the last fireflies

with a delicate

silk fan

sitting on the steps

under the starlight

cool as water

to watch the Weaver and Cowherd

keeping their annual tryst

in the Milky Way.

（David Young and Jiann I. Lin 译）

The Autumn Evening

Du Mu

The autumn silver candlelight is

cold on the painted screen.

On it, a lady chased the fireflies

with a little silk fan.

The Milky Way and the night were as

cool as water

as one gazed on the stars

of the Celestial Cowherd and

his Weaving Lady.

（Claire Wang-Lee 译）

Autumn Evening

Tu Mu

Autumn silver-moon candlelight chills painted screens,

gauze bed-curtains. Out fans buffet streaming fireflies.

On steps of sky the color of silken robes cold as water,

we sit watching Star River’s Weaver-Girl and Ox-Herd.

（David Hinton 译）

An Autumn Night

Du Mu

The silver candles light up the chill painted screens,

With a silk fan the palace maid flaps the fireflies.

Then on the stone steps washed by the autumn moon streams.

She lies to watch Altair and Vega in the skies! *

* It goes in the Chinese folklore that the lord of heaven’s granddaughter punished her to become a weaving girl as she fell in love with a worldly herd-boy and married him in private. They worked on either side of the Silver River (Milky Way) and could meet only once a year on the seventh morning before dawn of the seventh lunar month. On this very morning, magpies formed a Magpie Bridge for the weaving girl to come across the Silver River. Since then they are the Herd-boy Star (Altair) and Weaving-girl Star (Vega). In this poem, it means the palace maid yearns for love in the lonely forbidden palace.

（吴钧陶 译）

Autumn Evening

Du Mu

’Tis autumn, cold is the ink-brushed panel in the pale candlelight;

My maids in silk, little fans in hand, frolic with fireflies in flight.

Night falls, these royal palace grounds, chilled like in water be;

O here I lie to eye the Stars – of the Herder, the Weaver unite.

（黃宏發 译）