Autumn Equinox

The slanting light of the setting sun has just broken through the clouds, while thin floating clouds still linger without fully dispersing. A bright rainbow arches over the river like a long dragon drinking from afar; in the gorge, the last remnants of rain are still falling and scattering through the air. Wild ducks and geese eventually rise high and fly away, while bears seem to sense themselves growing steadily fatter. The Autumn Equinox has already arrived, yet I, a traveler, still remain far from home; at dusk, the dew upon the bamboo leaves glimmers faintly.

Du Fu sets this poem against the scenery of an evening at the Autumn Equinox and writes of the feeling of living away from home. “返照斜初彻” describes the setting sun newly breaking through the clouds after rain, while “浮云薄未归” writes the thin clouds still drifting and not yet dispersed. “江虹明远饮” compares the rainbow spanning the river to a long dragon drinking from the water, creating a magnificent image, while “峡雨落馀飞” captures the lingering traces of rain in the gorge as the shower begins to end. Rainbow and rain, distance and nearness, together create a broad sense of space. “凫雁终高去” writes wild geese flying south, one of the seasonal signs of the Autumn Equinox; “熊罴觉自肥” writes animals sensing the autumn chill and accumulating fat in preparation for winter. The final couplet, “秋分客尚在”, reveals that the poet remains a traveler in a foreign place even though the Autumn Equinox has arrived; “竹露夕微微” closes the poem with dew glimmering faintly on bamboo leaves at dusk, the chill of the dew quietly echoing the traveler’s loneliness. The poem weaves personal feeling into the natural seasonal phenomena of the Autumn Equinox, restrained yet substantial.