Border Song, I: The New Command
塞下曲六首·其一
Sài xià qǔ liù shǒu · qí yī
Feathered arrows and an embroidered banner frame a commander's new order. Follow the contrast between one standing figure and a thousand answering camps.
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Read the original and its translation together. Open a line’s word meanings for a closer look.
About the text and pronunciation
The simplified view changes character forms, not the edition. Notes and sources retain the cited text.
The Chinese source is shown in traditional characters by default, with a simplified view available. Pinyin is modern standard Mandarin, a reading aid, not Tang or Song pronunciation.
Word by word, in the order of the line. A gloss is a crib. It is not the translation.
Word meanings — Line 1
- 鷲 jiù eagle
- 翎 líng feather
- 金僕姑 jīn pú gū Pugu arrow
Word meanings — Line 2
- 燕 yàn swallow
- 尾 wěi tail
- 繡 xiù embroidered
- 蝥弧 máo hú Maohu banner
Word meanings — Line 3
- 獨 dú alone
- 立 lì stands
- 揚 yáng proclaims
- 新 xīn new
- 令 lìng command
Word meanings — Line 4
- 千 qiān thousand
- 營 yíng camps
- 共 gòng together
- 一 yì one
- 呼 hū shout
English translation by PoemWell.
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Original
鷲翎金僕姑，
燕尾繡蝥弧。
獨立揚新令，
千營共一呼。
Translation
Eagle feathers on a golden Pugu arrow;
a swallow's tail on the embroidered Maohu banner.
Standing alone, the commander proclaims a new order;
a thousand camps answer with a single shout.
Try it from memory
After reading, recall the underlined word or phrase in each line. Say its meaning before opening the answer. These prompts use the text edition printed above.
-
Line 1 · What does the marked word mean?
鷲翎金僕姑，
Pronunciation hint
jīn pú gū
Reveal meaning and translation
金僕姑 — Pugu arrow
Eagle feathers on a golden Pugu arrow;
-
Line 3 · What does the marked word mean?
獨立揚新令，
Pronunciation hint
yáng
Reveal meaning and translation
揚 — proclaims
Standing alone, the commander proclaims a new order;
-
Line 4 · What does the marked word mean?
千營共一呼。
Pronunciation hint
gòng
Reveal meaning and translation
共 — together
a thousand camps answer with a single shout.
One more question: what changes?
Compare the opening and closing lines. What changes in the scene, the speaker’s attention, or the feeling? Choose a Chinese word as evidence, then compare your reading with the notes. More than one answer may be reasonable.
Line-by-line notes →Self-check at your own pace. No score or progress is saved. Open only the answers you want included when printing.
Line-by-line notes
Lines 1–2 · Signs of the commander
鷲翎 gives the arrow its eagle feathers, and 燕尾 gives the banner a swallow’s tail. 金僕姑 is the arrow’s name and 蝥弧 the banner’s name. The English keeps the names together. Read the lines as images placed side by side, with the officer still outside the reader’s view. The objects identify a setting of command before it becomes audible.
Lines 3–4 · One order, one response
獨立 brings one standing person into the scene. 揚新令 gives that figure a public action, the issuing of a new command. 千營 then widens the view to all the camps. 共 and 一 let the many camps act as one voice. The English says they “answer” because the shout follows the order, a relationship compressed into the two lines in Chinese.
Form and tone
This is the complete first quatrain in Lu Lun’s six Border Songs, four lines of five characters. Equipment occupies the first couplet; command and response occupy the second. 獨 and 共 oppose singular authority and collective action, while 一 makes the shout unified.
See jueju for the larger formal pattern. Pinyin gives modern Mandarin pronunciation; a historical level/oblique grid is not inferred from those modern tones.
Historical context
The six poems are transmitted together in Yuefu shiji, juan 93, under the border-song heading. They use a stylized military world of commands, hunts, pursuits, banquets, and honor. The ancient object names should not be treated as an inventory proving the equipment of one documented Tang battle.
Continue with Lu Lun and the frontier reading path. Compare Border Song, III: Snow on Bows and Blades and Border Song, IV: The Victory Banquet using the reading connections below.
Sources
樂府詩集/093卷 — Chinese text. Checked against the linked Wikisource transcription. The displayed traditional text follows this reading. Punctuation and line breaks are editorial. Translation, glosses, and reading notes are original to PoemWell.
English translation, gloss, and notes by PoemWell. The translation is original to this site.
The Chinese source is shown in traditional characters by default, with a simplified view available. Pinyin is modern standard Mandarin, a reading aid, not Tang or Song pronunciation.
Updated .
Cite this reading
Lu Lun. “Border Song, I: The New Command” (塞下曲六首·其一). PoemWell. English translation by PoemWell. Updated .
https://poemwell.org/poems/border-song-lu-lun-one
Credit the poet for the Chinese original and PoemWell for this translation and commentary. Use the permanent page link above; source editions are listed separately.