望江南
李煜(937-978)
闲梦远， 南国正清秋。千里江山寒色远,芦花深处泊孤舟。笛在月明楼。

To the tune of “ Dreaming of the South”
Poem by Li Yu
Translation by Yang Zhiming
A mere chimera in my slumber takes me so far away,
As to the Southern Kingdom on a chilly autumn day.
Then over the mountains and rivers I feel so cold,
In a deep reed marsh I see myself on a lonely boat,
While out of a moonlit bower I hear a gloomy flute.

Translator’s Notes:

闲梦---Xian2meng4 “闲”literally it means ‘idle’ .HERE in the lyric it can be understood as “illusionary”. “梦”—dream.

远 --yuan3 in the first line is used as a verb here meaning to have reached a place faraway from where I stay.

南国---nan2guo2—it refers to Southern Tang (937-976) .A kingdom established during the period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms after Tang Dynasty was overthrown in 907. The city of Jinling (the present day Nanjing) was her capital.

清秋--qing1qiu1 means late autumn.
　　
千里江山寒色远-qian1li3jiang1shan1han2se4yuan3 literally interpreted as “the vast homeland is soaked in a boundless stretch of late(chilly) autumn scene.”
千里-- qian1li3—literally a thousand Li ( “Li- a unit of length” one Chinese Li is 0.5 kilometer),here it simply refers to “being vast”

江山-jiang1shan1 literally as “rivers and mountains.” Used this way as in the lyric it refers to the homeland thus revealing the state power or sovereignty.

寒色—han2se4 a kind of color that makes people feel cold such as indigo blue ,green and violet. It is a vivid description of a late autumn.

远—yuan3 in the third line may give a reader a feeling of being distant and vast, which is used as a modifier for the home country.
Commentary:

This is a lyric about dreaming of one s’ home country. The lyric contains only five lines. In the opening line it tells clearly that it is all about a dream. Why is that the poet has to visit his own motherland in the dream? A reader must be aware of that in the real world he, who is house arrested as a prisoner, enjoys no freedom. Therefore he has no way but concentrates himself on a dream to express his homesickness. And the second line shows that it is already late autumn in the homeland. It is a common sense that when it is in late autumn, flowers are fallen; falling leaves are here and there flown and trodden while the chilly wind is blowing over the mountains and rivers and all of these details could be felt in the third line: “the vast homeland is soaked in a boundless stretch of late (chilly) autumn scene.” Taking this complete picture, the whole scene of the homeland as a background, the poet shows two close-ups in the last two lines. The persona finds himself on a lonely boat in a deep reed marsh where catkins are floating,( which is also typical in late autumn) at this moment he hears a flute being played in a bower in the moonlight( that is felt cold.). What kind of music a reader would expect under such circumstances to go well with the persona’s mood? This is fittingly reminiscent of Su Shi’s words :”Oh, it sounds so sad, as if one were sobbing while airing his grievance!” when he heard someone singing while boating with his friends in autumn. The flute the persona heard should be the same in tone as what Su Shi felt. It is something so dim, so cold, so damp, so dead that tortures the persona in the bottom of his heart!
However the persona reaches his home finally. But the home is no longer the one he remembers. When he was the king of the kingdom it was full of joy of spring—orioles’ singing and swallows’ dancing were everywhere representing the peace and prosperity which now becomes bleak and languished. What a striking contrast!
Yang zhiming 03-02-2005
About the poet:
Li Yu (937-978)
His literary name was Chongguang, one of his style names was Zhongshanyingshi (literally a recluse in Zhong mountain) . He had four style names.
He was a native of Xuzhou (present Xuzhou, Jiangsu province). As the last king of the Southern Tang which was already a dependency of Song Dynasty, he was seemingly not aware of his regime’s decline for everyday he still indulged himself in drinking, music and palace maids. In 975 Northern Song threw the kingdom over and he surrendered with his shirt off. As a prisoner, though granted a noble title of Weiming Hou, he was actually house arrested in the capital of Northern Song. And three years later in 978 he was poisoned to death with the poisonous wine offered by the emperor Tai Zong of Song Dynasty.
Li Yu, as a poet and artist, he was very fond of poetry, music, and painting. His outstanding achievement in his lyrics was profound. He practiced two styles in composing his lyrics. When he was in power his works were mostly concerned with luxurious life in palace. Therefore his style then was rather wastefully extravagant. However when he was a prisoner, the style he employed was a simple and straightforward one. And the theme was always about sorrow, grief and bitter remorse over his home country lost. And its imagery was for all the time fresh and lively.