On the Heights
Song lyrics
I am a constant traveler
This melancholy fall
My back is bent with trouble
I scale the heights alone
The autumn wind blows bitter
My hair is white with frost
Farewell to wine and whiskey
So many pleasures lost
The hawks and eagles circle
Above the rocky shore
The broad and muddy river
Rolls southward evermore
I am a constant traveler
This melancholy fall
My back is bent with trouble
I scale this height alone
Wind whistles through the swirling leaves
High on the craggy hill
It rustles all my words away
And leaves me sad and still.
My legs are tired and weary
From climbing up the knoll
The overlook is empty
And no one hears me call
I am a constant traveler
This melancholy fall
My back is bent with trouble
I scale the heights alone
Du Fu, On the Heights
杜甫 登高
The wind is keen and the sky wide,
apes howl mournfully;
the islet is clear, its sand white,
birds wheel round and round.
In the boundless forest swirling leaves
go rustling, rustling by;
down the endless river surging waves
come rolling, rolling on.
I am a constant traveler
this melancholy autumn –
an old man now, racked by sickness,
I scale these heights alone.
This life, so hard, full of bitter pain,
has turned my hair to frost;
left me so poor that my last cup
of cloudy wine is gone.
Keith Holyoak, trans. Facing the Moon: Poems of Li Bai and Du Fu (Durham, N.H.: Oyster River Press, 2007) 113.
Du Fu, Journeying South in Frail Old Age
杜甫 老病南征
The maple forest
brings spring to Peach Blossom River;
with its white sail
my boat will draw me through it.
A refugee,
I keep on moving farther
from my home
as tears fall on my clothing.
Old and sick,
I struggle steadily southward;
yet still gaze north;
recalling my gracious sovereign.
My whole life
is just a bitter song –
I found no one
who cared for my sad music.
Keith Holyoak, trans. Facing the Moon: Poems of Li Bai and Du Fu (Durham, N.H.: Oyster River Press, 2007) 114.
My song: The line, “I am a constant traveler” brought to mind Bill Monroe’s “Weary Traveler,” a cut on Bill Monroe’s album of the same name. MCA Records - MCA-2173 (1976). What a fabulous album: I wore out the LP in my college dorm room, admiring the masterful fiddling of the great Kenny Baker throughout the tracks. I think, too, of songs like “I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow.” So I arranged my On The Heights in the style of a traditional bluegrass song.
There is a Bill Monroe song, “Can’t You Hear Me Calling,” an idea I pick up in my line “and no one hears me call.” The Tang poets would appreciate my allusion to a revered master. Hawks and eagles do circle over the little hills in my rural county, riding the updrafts. “Hawks and Eagles” is also the name of an old fiddle tune.