Answering Director He’s Moonlit Drinking Poem

Lines 1–2 · A full moon shared

奉和 in the title marks a respectful reply in verse, and 賀監 identifies Director He by surname and office. 華月 and 滿 give the moon its brilliance and fullness, while 同 makes the pleasure something the court talents share. The occasion already includes other writers who can answer one another.

Lines 3–4 · Coolness reaches the enclosure

新霽 is the sky clearing after rain, so 入 brings the company into the grove under newly clear weather. The transmitted 規院 is difficult. The English keeps the courtyard setting without assigning a particular shape to it. 窺院, “look into the courtyard,” is the recorded alternative. 小涼 gives the moving air a slight coolness rather than a sudden chill.

Lines 5–6 · From the table to the wine

碎影 breaks the light into moving patches across the feast. 搖花 can make those patches look like trembling flowers. The translation follows the light into the wine instead of positing blossoms falling from a tree. The two lines let the shared scene gather in a small surface close enough to watch.

Lines 7–8 · What the evening offers the writers

凝 brings the freshness of the clear night together. 助 gives it a use, assisting the 文雄, masters of writing. The evening’s details become materials the people at the feast can put into verse. That closing action gives a reason for the poetic reply named before the poem begins.

This five-character lushi uses parallel middle couplets to guide light inward: grove and enclosure, feast and wine. 同, 通, 中, and 雄 provide the even-line rhyme. Modern Mandarin pinyin is supplied; historical tone classes are not guessed from those tones.

Wang Wan's moon belongs to real company and a poetic exchange. Read it beside A Question for Liu Nineteen, before a gathering exists, and Drinking Alone beneath the Moon, where company must be imagined. The text follows the collected main readings 朝英, 規院, and 小涼; the source records alternatives.