2010.02.9
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中文原文﹕
李煜 – 相見歡
無言獨上西樓，月如鉤。
寂寞梧桐深院鎖清秋。
剪不斷，理還亂，是離愁。
別是一般滋味在心頭。
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英文翻譯﹕
LI Yu – A Joyful Rendezvou (Tune and Rhyme Pattern)
In seclusion I ascend the west tower in silence, a hook of a new moon above.
On guarded grounds lonesome phoenix trees apprehend the works of a brisk autumn.
Sever not, reasons fail, it is parting sorrow but sweet it is not.
It is a taste of something else on the hook, on my mind it frees me not.
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2010.02.8
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中文原文﹕
杜甫 – 贈衛八處士 （五言古詩）
人生不相見， 動如參與商，
今夕復何夕？ 共此燈燭光。
少壯能幾時？ 鬢髮各已蒼。
訪舊半為鬼， 驚呼熱中腸。
焉知二十載， 重上君子堂。
昔別君未婚， 兒女忽成行；
怡然敬父執， 問我來何方。
問答乃未已， 驅兒羅酒漿。
夜雨剪春韭， 新炊間黃粱。
主稱會面難， 一舉累十觴；
十觴亦不醉， 感子故意長。
明日隔山岳， 世事兩茫茫。
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英文翻譯﹕
DU Fu – To My Retired Friend Wei (Five-character-ancient-verse)
We had been unable to reunite for so long,
We had been like stars on either side of the sky.
What a night this has been?
For us to share this candlelight.
For how long does youth last?
Your hair has greyed and so has mine.
Of the old acquaintances I called upon, half of them have ghosts become,
Aghast and gut wrenched I cried.
All of a sudden twenty years have gone by
Before I could again call on where you reside.
You were not engaged when we went our separate ways,
You are now married with children after all this time.
They courteously greet their father’s friend,
And my journey enquire.
Before I could their curiosity satisfy,
You have you son bringing out the wine.
We nibble on chives just gathered in the evening spring rain,
In a fresh meal that rough grains contain, abundant is pure joy as old friends reunite.
You marvel at how unexpected such a reunion is,
In one go you gulp down more than a pint.
Pints after, high in spirit you are yet sober still,
And I am grateful for your friendship so genuine.
Tomorrow shall find us separated by mountains again,
What the future holds is vague and undefined.
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2010.02.8
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中文原文﹕
杜甫 – 望岳，又作岳 （五言古詩）
岱宗夫如何？ 齊魯青未了。
造化鐘神秀， 陰陽割昏曉。
蕩胸生層雲， 決眥入歸鳥。
會當凌絕頂， 一覽眾山小。
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英文翻譯﹕
DU Fu – Mountain Gazing (Five-character-ancient-verse)
What of the mountains that is great?
Still green everywhere were once warring states.
The creation of sky and earth gathers here heavenly splendor,
Bearing and geography determine light and shade.
What moves me is seeing layers of clouds afloat,
I look out far and wide I see birds their homeward journey make.
One day if I could, I’d like to rise atop the peak of all peaks,
Where I could see all mountains there lay.
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2010.02.8
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中文原文﹕
李白 – 春思 （五言古詩）
燕草如碧絲， 秦桑低綠枝；
當君懷歸日， 是妾斷腸時。
春風不相識， 何事入羅幃？
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英文翻譯﹕
LI Bai – Spring Yearning (Five-character-ancient-verse)
Silken fine is the grass of the northern Yan region,
Low and green hang branches of mulberry trees of our western Qin region.
When you have finally started to homecoming desire,
Distressed by your absence heartbroken am I.
O spring breeze, I know you not,
Why disturb my chamber curtain my bedtime.
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2010.02.8
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中文原文﹕
林升 – 題臨安邸 （七言律詩）
山外青山樓外樓，
西湖歌舞幾時休。
暖風熏得遊人醉，
直把杭州作汴州！
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英文翻譯﹕
LIN Sheng – On a Lin An Hotel Wall (Seven-character-regular-verse)
Beyond the hills green mountains lie, next to mansions stand edifices of more,
Singing and dancing on and around the West Lake never draw to a close.
As if warm breezes are scented, intoxicating wayfarers,
Who takes Hangzhou for capital Bianzhou, as if all is well, good as gold.
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2010.01.27
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英文原文﹕
Robert FROST – Mending Wall
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
“Stay where you are until our backs are turned!”
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
“Why do they make good neighbours? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.” I could say “Elves” to him,
But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
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中文翻譯﹕
羅伯·佛洛斯特 – 補牆
有什麼礙著不適合用牆﹐
把冰凍的地潮往它的底下凝漲﹐
讓頂頭的大石在太陽底下墜落﹐
使縫隙大得讓兩個人能並肩過。
獵人的傑作又是一番損壞﹕
我跟在後頭跟著補修
獵人翻弄得石塊挺不住石塊﹐
這可讓兔子藏不住﹐
讓獵犬高興得直吠。話說這牆洞﹐
沒人見過洞怎麼來的也沒聽到牆破洞﹐
但春天的補牆時候一到牆洞即在。
我會通知山丘那頭的鄰居﹔
擇日會面沿著邊界巡走
再次重新砌築我們之間那道牆。
我們邊走邊砌我們之間那道牆。
把掉落彼此那方的大石再堆上。
有一條條的還有幾乎是球狀的
我們還得施點魔術來平衡﹕
「好好待著直到我們轉身！」
喔﹐這不過是又一項戶外遊戲﹐
一人一邊。沒什麼意義﹕
隔著牆可是我們並不需要牆﹕
他那邊都是松樹我這兒是蘋果園。
我的蘋果樹怎麼也不會過去
吃掉他松樹底下的松果﹐我這麼跟他說。
他只說﹐「好圍牆成就好鄰居。」
春天使我胡思﹐我臆想
如果我能在他腦子裡起個念頭﹕
「圍牆怎麼成就好鄰居﹖是不是
針對有牛的地方﹖但這裡沒牛。
築牆之前我會想問清楚
是要把什麼圍在牆內或抵在牆外﹐
這麼做可能會得罪什麼人。
有什麼礙著不適合用牆﹐
想要它倒下。」也許我該跟他說是「森林小精靈」﹐
但又不盡然是小精靈﹐要這麼說
也應該是因為他這麼想。我看著他繼續﹐
牢牢地提拿著石塊的頂端﹐
一手一石﹐像石器時代武裝的野人。
像是在模糊無知的黑暗裡活動﹐
那不僅是森林的陰暗和樹蔭。
他不會去推敲他父親的格言﹐
他還得意於想起得如此適時
他又說了一遍﹐「好圍牆成就好鄰居。」
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2010.01.27
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中文原文﹕
白居易 – 長恨歌 （七言古詩）
漢皇重色思傾國， 御宇多年求不得。
楊家有女初長成， 養在深閨人未識。
天生麗質難自棄， 一朝選在君王側；
回眸一笑百媚生， 六宮粉黛無顏色。
春寒賜浴華清池， 溫泉水滑洗凝脂；
侍儿扶起嬌無力， 始是新承恩澤時。
雲鬢花顏金步搖， 芙蓉帳暖度春宵；
春宵苦短日高起， 從此君王不早朝。
承歡侍宴無閒暇， 春從春遊夜專夜。
后宮佳麗三千人， 三千寵愛在一身。
金星妝成嬌侍夜， 玉樓宴罷醉如春。
姊妹弟兄皆列士， 可憐光彩生門戶；
遂令天下父母心， 不重生男重生女。
驪宮高處入青雲， 仙樂風飄處處聞；
緩歌謾舞凝絲竹， 盡日君王看不足。
漁陽鼙鼓動地來， 驚破霓裳羽衣曲。
九重城闕煙塵生， 千乘萬騎西南行。
翠華搖搖行復止， 西出都門百余里。
六軍不發無奈何？ 宛轉蛾眉馬前死。
花鈿委地無人收， 翠翹金雀玉搔頭。
君王掩面救不得， 回看血淚相和流。
黃埃散漫風蕭索， 雲棧縈紆登劍閣。
峨嵋山下少人行， 旌旗無光日色薄。
蜀江水碧蜀山青， 聖主朝朝暮暮情。
行宮見月傷心色， 夜雨聞鈴腸斷聲。
天旋地轉回龍馭， 到此躊躇不能去。
馬嵬坡下泥土中， 不見玉顏空死處。
君臣相顧盡沾衣， 東望都門信馬歸。
歸來池苑皆依舊， 太液芙蓉未央柳；
芙蓉如面柳如眉， 對此如何不淚垂？
春風桃李花開日， 秋雨梧桐葉落時。
西宮南內多秋草， 落葉滿階紅不掃。
梨園子弟白發新， 椒房阿監青娥老。
夕殿螢飛思悄然， 孤燈挑盡未成眠。
遲遲鐘鼓初長夜， 耿耿星河欲曙天。
鴛鴦瓦冷霜華重， 翡翠衾寒誰與共？
悠悠生死別經年， 魂魄不曾來入夢。
臨邛道士鴻都客， 能以精誠致魂魄；
為感君王輾轉思， 遂教方士殷勤覓。
排空馭气奔如電， 升天入地求之遍；
上窮碧落下黃泉， 兩處茫茫皆不見。
忽聞海上有仙山， 山在虛無縹緲間；
樓閣玲瓏五雲起， 其中綽約多仙子。
中有一人字太真， 雪膚花貌參差是。
金闕西廂叩玉扃， 轉教小玉報雙成。
聞道漢家天子使， 九華帳里夢魂驚。
攬衣推枕起徘徊， 珠箔銀屏迤邐開，
雲鬢半偏新睡覺， 花冠不整下堂來。
風吹仙袂飄飄舉， 猶似霓裳羽衣舞；
玉容寂寞淚闌干， 梨花一枝春帶雨。
含情凝睇謝君王， 一別音容兩渺茫。
昭陽殿里恩愛絕， 蓬萊宮中日月長。
回頭下望人寰處， 不見長安見塵霧。
唯將舊物表深情， 鈿合金釵寄將去。
釵留一股合一扇， 釵擘黃金合分鈿；
但教心似金鈿堅， 天上人間會相見。
臨別殷勤重寄詞， 詞中有誓兩心知。
七月七日長生殿， 夜半無人私語時。
在天願作比翼鳥， 在地願為連理枝。
天長地久有時盡， 此恨綿綿無絕期。
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英文翻譯﹕
BAI Juyi – A Song of Immortal Regret (Seven-character-ancient-verse)
Tang Emperor Xuanzhong lusted after a beauty worthy of taking a country to war for,
For so many years of his reign unfulfilled his wish remained.
There was a Yang family whose daughter had come of age,
Well kempt in the inner quarters of their residence unknown to the social scene.
Yet her natural beauty spelled her destiny unveiled,
Into the palace she did go and by the Emperor’s side she was received.
As she turned her head, one smile enchanted all,
Outshining all women in the Palace who in comparison had their colour lost.
In the Spring chill, the Emperor bestowed on her a bath in the Huaqin Pond,
A natural thermal spa with salubrious water to her milky skin cleanse.
A maid helped to support her lady-like delicacy,
Thus began the Emperor’s adoration of this fair lady.
As she moved, golden beads adorning her cloud-soft hair swayed to glitter her florid face,
Behind chamber curtains painted with lotus, springtime passion was in play.
Springtime passion made speed of night and in no time the sun had risen high,
The Emperor stopped attending the morning assembly on state affairs.
In pleasing the Emperor and his consort be at banquets she devoted her time,
Springtime is for garden wayfaring and the nighttime chamber private affairs.
The Emperor’s beauty mansions held three thousand fair ladies,
Whom the Emperor could have adored but all his love on Lady Yang attended.
In the gilded mansion she prepared for the Emperor’s night entertainment,
After banquets from majestic pavilions she wavered down in sensual high.
All of her brothers and sisters were awarded with prominent official titles,
All the power and glory because of her on one family fell.
Hence all fathers and mothers of the world,
Would rather than boys girls bear and raise.
The Li Palace towered into the sky amongst clouds,
From there heavenly music drifted in the wind far and wide.
Soothing singing and amatory dancing intertwined with strings and pipes,
The Emperor indulged day and night ever wanting more.
Until suddenly war drums from Yuyang had the capital’s earth quaking,
Sprung out of tune was Lady Yang’s dance in Rainbow dress and Feather robe.
The revolt stormed near bringing smoke and dust to the palace towers,
The Emperor decided to southwest retreat on tens of thousands of coaches.
The Emperor’s coach with a jade flower flag made way and stops now and again,
West of the capital for mere tens of miles they rode.
Then the army refused to continue course, the Emperor in dilemma had to consent
To the now wailing Lady’s execution at once in front of horses for all to see.
Strangled she was, her bejeweled hair pieces were left scattered on the ground,
Jade and golden ornaments that used to adorn her hair.
The Emperor could not the fair lady rescue nor bear to watch,
When he did look back, he wept tears that flowed also blood.
The bleakness lingered in the bitter wind storming the yellow earth sky high,
The retreat continued through alpine passes from the Cloudy to the Sword-like.
The foot of the Ermei mountains in the Shu region used to little traffic see,
Yet lackluster was the feel of the Emperor’s flag and daylight appeared weak.
The waters of Shu was blue and the mountains of Shu green,
The Emperor however was day after day consumed by the remembrance of lost love.
At his temporary residence, the moon offered nothing but added to his grieved,
The rain and bells at night rang the sound of his heart broken in shatters.
After moving heaven and earth, the Emperor returned in his dragon coach,
Stopping at where his Lady died, unable to move on, long he lingered.
For beneath the soil of the Mawei Slope must be where his lady lied,
Though her beautiful face of pure jade might have in vain died.
The Emperor and his courtiers looked on, their collars wet from tears,
Their loosely reigned horses sauntered eastward towards the capital gates.
The palace gardens and ponds remained as usual in their comeback,
The hibiscus in the Taiye Pond blossomed, the willows in the Weiyang Mansion thrived.
The hibiscus was like the late Lady’s face and the willows her eyebrows,
With such scenery, how could the Emperor not be reminded of the Lady’s face.
How they had seen together the peach and plum blossoms in spring breezes,
How they watched the leaves leave phoenix trees in autumn rains.
The Emperor now resides in the southwestern mansion full of autumn plants,
Where stairs were covered in reddened leaves and no one came by to sweep.
The operatic circle student’s hair had begun to turn grey,
Eunuchs and maids at the late Lady’s mansion had aged and faded away.
The palace had a lonely place become, even nightly fireflies could not enliven,
The Emperor’s lament wore the lone candle to its end in sleepless nights.
Night-hour gongs gonged the start of long nights,
Starry light lighted so bright resembling daybreak time.
Palace roof figurines of mandarin ducks were covered cold in heavy frost,
With whom could the Emperor share the now warmth-lacking kingfisher feather quilt.
In a daze, the passing of the late Lady had been a year in time,
Yet her spirit never once the Emperor’s dream entered for a rendezvous.
A Taoist priest from Lingqiong of the region of Shu,
Claimed to with his sincere and pure faith the dead spirits reach.
As the Emperor seemed forever engrossed in the remembrance of the late Lady,
The priest was summoned to seek attentively for her spirit.
In lightening speed he glided in thin air and navigated the clouds,
He searched everywhere in the sky and on the earth but failed to her spirit find.
He exhausted all avenues in heaven and the nether world,
Boundless and vast as they were, he could not her existence bring to light.
Then he heard of tales of a celestial mountain in the sea,
In the mid of misty nowhere.
In the mountain amongst clouds of rainbow colours existed delicate architecture,
And there lived beautiful fairies.
Of them there was a fairy named True Faith, so was the late Lady,
With whom the fairy shared much similar snow-white skin and flowery face.
The priest came to the gate of the golden West Hall to knock on a door of jade,
Asked the heavenly maid and matron to the Lady notify.
Upon hearing the arrival of the Emperor’s envoy,
The Lady resting behind her canopy of nine flowers was startled and aroused.
She pushed aside her pillow to get dressed, then she hesitated and paced,
Surrounded she was by veils of golden beads and silver mirror panes.
Her luxuriant hair was lopsided from having just been awaken,
She came to the main hall with her crooked laureate unadjusted.
In the breeze her clothes and sleeves were aflutter,
Much like the Lady’s dance in the Rainbow dress and Feather robe.
Her beauty is marred by loneliness and her tears in streams,
Muck like a pear flower blooming after the rain.
She gazed at the priest in silence to her gratitude to the Emperor convey,
Since parting they could not each other’s voice hear nor visage behold.
Their warmth and love were left behind in the Mansion of Morning Sun,
Her days in the fairy court were long and indefinitely prolonged was time.
When she looked back to the temporal world,
She could not see the Changan capital but dusty and misty skies.
What remained of the bygone days were two keepsakes,
A jewellery box and a golden hairpin for the priest to the Emperor take.
One half of a hairpin and one tray of the box she would keep,
Breaking the hairpin and box into parts.
She hoped the Emperor’s love would be as unflinching as their pledges,
So they could be united in heaven or on earth in another life.
Upon bidding farewell to the Emperor’s emissary she reminded him repeatedly,
To relay to the Emperor a poem wherein contained their secret oath.
Once on the seventh night of the seventh moon in the Hall of Eternity,
When no one was around they whispered words of love in the depth of night.
“In the heavens above let us be one-winged birds and only in pairs fly,
On the earth let us be neighbouring trees and our branches intertwine.”
And I, having written so long a poem, feel
Even if the the eternal heaven and earth ever had an end,
This couple’s yearning had turned into such regret that would never ever end.
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2010.01.21
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中文原文﹕
張九齡 – 感遇其一 （五言古詩）
孤鴻海上來， 池潢不敢顧；
側見雙翠鳥， 巢在三珠樹。
矯矯珍木巔， 得無金丸懼？
美服患人指， 高明逼神惡。
今我游冥冥， 弋者何所慕？
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英文翻譯﹕
ZHANG Jiuling – Thoughts I (Five-character-ancient-verse)
A solitary swan flew in from the sea,
Passing on ponds without thinking twice.
Looking sideways it sees a couple of kingfishers of fine feathers,
With their nest on a treasured tree of pearl enshrined
Atop tree of such eminence they perched daintily,
Are they not afraid of powerful metal slingshot strikes?
Well dressers draw attention,
High positions attract the Deity’s scrutiny for vice.
As for I, much like that lone swan in the infinite sky,
Bird-hunters shall find me difficult to pinpoint and acquire.
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