Wang Han (689 - 726)was a frontier poet though as secretary of Premier Zhang Yue he had never been to the frontier, This quatrain begins with the wine of grapes which was believed to have been imported from Greece during the reign of King Mu of the Zhou dynasty or Emperor Wu of the Han, and with the cup of jade glowing at flight which was also the product of Western countries, so the very first line creates a frontier atmosphere and tells us there was intercultural communication as early as the Zhou or the Han dynasty in Chinese history. The second line is subject to three different Interpretations; (1) the Pipa, a musical instrument which Giles replaced by bugle and Bynner by guitar, summoned the warriors to the battleground while they were drinking! (2) the warriors were playing music on horseback or (3) they were summoned while drinking to the Pipa songs. I prefer the last to the first and think the second is a misinterpretation. As to lines 3-4, most commentators agree that they express the warriors’ feeling of sorrow; some think that soldiers should make merry while they might since few could come back alive; only a few say that this shows the dauntless spirit of warriors in face of death. In either of the last two cases, this quatrain may be compared with the following verse in Jolly Mortals, Fill Your Glasses of Robert Burns:

What is title, what is treasure,
What is reputation’s care?
If we lead a life of pleasure,
This no matter how or where!

The English song has eight stanzas or Quatrains but the Chinese poem has only one which expresses as much as eight, so we may well say that never has so much been said in so short a poem as a Tang Quatrain.

STARTING FOR THE FRONT
Wang Han
The cup of jade would glow with wine of grapes at night.
Drinking to Pipa songs, we are summoned to fight.
Don’t laugh if we lay drunken on the battle ground!
How many warriors ever come back safe and sound?

Note: Pipa is a kind of musical instrument of China.

凉州词

唐 王翰

葡萄美酒夜光杯，

欲饮琵琶马上催。

醉卧沙场君莫笑，

古来征战几人回?

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