美文阅读 } 水调歌头 Prelude to Water Melody (苏轼)

0:00More to read, more to unfold. May when you are there. Hello and welcome to More to Read, the podcast where there is always more to unfold. I'm your host Shinteng. Tonight, across the eastern sky, the moon is at its fullest. In Chinese tradition, this is the Mid-Autumn Festival, a time for reunion, moon gazing, and the quiet ache of missing those far away. Over the centuries, China's greatest poets have turned their eyes to this same moon. Tonight, we'll look at three of the most celebrated Mid-Autumn poems. Each one captures something unique about longing and connection. Let's begin.

1:15Our first poem comes from the Tang Dynasty poet Wang Jian. It's titled, Watching the Moon on Mid-Autumn Night to Prefect Do. 15th May, the moon is at its fullest. Wang Jian. The moon on Mid-Autumn Night to Prefect Do by Wang Jian. The cool chart glows

2:16pale white, crows roost on tree boughs, silent, cold dew, dampens or smanthers blooms soft. All men lift eyes to this bright moon tonight, whose heart bears autumn longings heavy blight. What's remarkable about this poem is that Wang Jian never actually mentions the moon. He only shows us its effects. The ground painted white, the silent dew, the settling birds, the moon is everywhere and nowhere. And then the ending. All men lift eyes to this bright moon tonight. Everyone sees the same moon, but everyone's sorrow is different.

3:20Some are gathered with family, some are alone, some hearts are at peace, some are aching. By asking whose heart bears autumn longings heavy blight, Wang Jian acknowledges that longing is both universal and utterly personal. The moon connects us, but it also reviews our solitude. Our second poem is from Zhangzhou Ling, another Tang Dynasty poet. The title is, Looking at the Moon and Long for One Far Away.

4:28Wang Yue Huai Yuan, Zhangzhou Ling, Shanghai's moon is bright, the moon is everywhere and nowhere. The moon is everywhere and nowhere. The moon is everywhere and nowhere. The moon connects us, but everyone's sorrow is different. Bukan Ying Shou Zheng, Huan Qi Meng Jia Qi Looking at the moon and longing for one far away, by Zhangzhou Ling, Over the sea grows the moon bright, we gaze on it far far apart. Lovers complain of long, long night, they rise and long for the dear heart.

5:28Candle blown out, fuller is light. My coat put on, I'm moist with dew. As I can't hand you moonbeams white, I go to bed to dream of you. The opening lines, Hai Shang Sheng Ming Yue, Tian Ya Gong Ci Shi, are among the most famous in all of Chinese poetry. The image is vast and oceanic. The moon rising out of the sea, boundless and unstoppable.

6:28And the second line brings it all back to the human heart. We gaze on it far far apart. It's not just that the moon is beautiful, it's that the moon is shared. It bridges the distance between you and the one you are missing. Notice what happens next. The lovers, or more broadly, those who love, complain of the long, long night. Not because the night is boring, but because longing makes time stretch. And then we get a sequence of exquisitely small gestures. The candle is blown out, not to sleep, but letting more moonlight. He steps outside, and the dew soak through his coat without his noticing. These details are so human, so unheroic, yet they carry the weight of a whole night of sleepless yearning. And then the closing paradox, which the poet renders beautifully.

7:32As I can't hand you moonbeams white, I go to bed to dream of you. The moonlight is all around him, filled with the presence of the absent beloved. And yet he cannot share it, cannot send it. The only gift he can offer is a dream, which is both less and more than moonlight. It's a gesture of tender helplessness, and yet it's also a refusal to give up on connection. If distance cannot be erased physically, it can at least be transcended through dreams, through imagination, through the shared act of looking at the same light. And now we come to the poem that many consider the greatest mid-autumn poem ever written.

8:38Su Shus prelude to Watermelody. The poem was written in 1776. One Su Shus, one of the most celebrated Song Dynasty Literati, was far from his beloved younger brother, whom he hadn't seen in seven years. Su Shus, one of the most celebrated Song Dynasty Literati, was far from his beloved younger brother, whom he hadn't seen in seven years. The poem was written in 1776. The poem was written in 1776. The poem was written in 1776. The poem was written in 1776. The poem was written in 1776. The poem was written in 1776. The poem was written in 1776.

10:01The poem was written in 18 gros loose points with fever and even관 Wasiluller, whom he hadn't seen in 1795, and these flowers he freshly rose to. In 18 Stage, the poem was arranged by one of the few enemies outside the molasses. The poem was written in 1896 Prelude to Watermelody by Sushu How long will the full moon appear? Wine-coupling hand I ask the sky. I do not know what time of the year it would be tonight in the palace on high. Writing the wind there I would fly.

11:02Yet I'm afraid the crystalline palace would be too high and cold for me. I rise and dance with my shadow I play. On high as on earth would it be as gay? The moon goes round the mansions red through gays draped window soft to shed. Her light upon the sleepless bed. Why then when people part is she oft full and bright? Men have sorrow and joy. They part on meat again. The moon is bright or dim and she may wax away. There has been nothing perfect since the olden days. So let us wish that man will live long as he can. Though miles apart will share the beauty she displays.

12:17What makes Sushu's poem extraordinary is its movement. It rises to the heavens contemplates returning to the celestial palaces. And then pulls back because heaven it turns out is too cold for someone with a human heart. The imperfect human world is ultimately more worth living in. And then comes the wisdom. Men have sorrow and joy. They part on meat again. The moon is bright or dim and she may wax away. There has been nothing perfect since the olden days. Sushu doesn't deny the pain of separation. He acknowledges it as part of the natural order. And then he offers a consolation. Though miles apart will share the beauty she displays. Connection does not require physical presence.

13:19If we are under the same moon, we are together in a real and meaningful way. So here we have three poets, one moon and three distinct ways of seeing it. One gen showed us that the moon unites all eyes. Yet each heart carries its own sorrow. Zhang Zhou Ling showed us that distance can be bridged through shared gazing, through sleepless longing and finally through dreams. And Sushu, writing far from home on a night when the ones he loved were beyond reach, showed us something even harder. That incompleteness is not a flaw but the very nature of life. Parting and meeting, fullness and waning, they have always gone together since ancient times.

14:20And yet we still look up, we still hope. Because the moon in the end is just light. It's what we do with that light, the way we turn it into longing, into memory, into an offering we cannot hold but can still give. That makes it matter. Thank you for listening. May you share this moonlight with those you love wherever they may be. I'm Shunting in Beijing. Good night.