庄生晓梦迷蝴蝶

back in the states, after a month in 合肥 exploring the city and studying chinese at 合肥农业大学。(some of my classmates and i were also briefly in 苏州 and 上海 after the program ended.) here's a poem that one of our teachers in the program at the university taught us, on our last day of class. it's by 李商隱, of the tang dynasty. i've first transcribed it in simplified characters, which is the version she taught us (with punctuation!). and then i've provoided some english translations (the first one side-by-side with the original in traditional characters) that i've managed to find online. i'm not big fans of any of these translations, because i think the poem seem rather flowery, when it's so simple, clear, to the point. the poem--in chinese--i find incredibly, almost painfully beautiful.

as our teacher in 合肥 commented, "it's sort of about...the way life passes so quickly. and then when you're old, when you look back on your life, and think, couldn't i have done some of these things better? what if i had?" much of the poem is built on elegantly wrought references to very famous events, mythological and historical, in tang dynasty chinese imagination. each line of the poem illustrates the brevity and transience of living, in a personal as well as universal way. while 李商隱 mentions famous events, he does so through specific figures like the daoist poet-philosopher Chuang-Tzu.

锦瑟

锦瑟无端五十弦，
一弦一柱思华年。
庄生晓梦迷蝴蝶，
望帝春心托杜鹃。
沧海月明珠有泪，
蓝田日暖玉生烟。
此情可待成追忆，
只是当时已惘然。

side-by-side chinese/english from this site, which also features some of the author's interesting musings on the art of translation...


錦瑟無端五十絃 For no reason the brocade zither’s fifty strings.
一絃一柱思華年 Each bridge, each fret, recalls a flowering year.
莊生曉夢迷蝴蝶 Dawn dreams of a butterfly dazed Master Zhuang.
望帝春心託杜鵑 Prince Wang to the nightjar entrusted spring longings.
滄海月明珠有淚 Through sapphire seas a moonlit pearl sheds a tear.
藍田日暖玉生煙 From indigo fields jade makes smoke in warm sun.
此情可待成追憶 A mood, in time, awaiting recollection?
只是當時已惘然 Yet even then already lost and done.




another english translation, from here...

The Brocade Zither

Mere chance that the patterned lute has fifty strings.
String and fret, one by one, recall the blossoming years.
Chuang-tzu dreams at sunrise that a butterfly lost its way,
Wang-ti bequeathed his spring passion to the nightjar.
The moon is full on the vast sea, a tear on the pearl.
On Blue Mountain the sun warms, a smoke issues from the jade.
Did it wait, this mood, to mature with hindsight?
In a trance from the beginning, then as now.


and another translation of this poem (on this wonderful site), which takes quite a few creative liberties...but i kinda like the interpretation overall...

The Inland Harp

I wonder why my inlaid harp has fifty strings,
Each with its flower-like fret an interval of youth.
...The sage Chuangzi is day-dreaming, bewitched by butterflies,
The spring-heart of Emperor Wang is crying in a cuckoo,
Mermen weep their pearly tears down a moon-green sea,
Blue fields are breathing their jade to the sun....
And a moment that ought to have lasted for ever
Has come and gone before I knew.


*

another beautiful one by 李商隱, with a stunningly haunting last line... (though our teacher said that there are several 李商隱 poems that chinese ppl know completely by heart because every line is very famous.)

無題 其二

颯颯東風細雨來
芙蓉塘外有輕雷
芙蓉塘外有輕雷
金蟾嚙鎖燒香入
玉虎牽絲汲井回
賈氏窺簾韓掾少
宓妃留枕魏王才
春心莫共花爭發
一寸相思一寸灰

Untitled II

The east wind sighs, the fine rains come:
Beyond the pool of water-lilies, the noise of faint thunder.
A gold toad gnaws the lock. Open it, burn the incense.
A tiger of jade pulls the rope. Draw from the well and escape.
Chia's daughter peeped through the screen when Han the clerk was young,
The goddess of the River left her pillow for the great Prince of Wei.
Never let your heart open with the spring flowers:
One inch of love is an inch of ashes.

(found on this highly informative site - i'd definitely recommend a visit!)

李商隱's work truly is lyric poetry at some of its best. i feel that he understands that yes, lyric poetry is emotional and personal, but for the poetry to have any real lasting power, those emotions have to tap into something greater and deeper than just what any individual felt on any particular day--and yet, paradoxically, the lyric is in its simplest definition, just that (what a person felt at a certain time). well, 李商隱 melds the specific and the universal so skillfully; it's refreshing to read his work (in sharp contrast to much of what passes as the "lyric" today, a.k.a. i-wrote-in-my-journal-today-and-then-submitted-it-to-the-new-yorker crap), with its strong images, its witty and elegantly phrased allusions to chinese history and mythology (iconic scenes that illuminate personal, national, and ultimately timeless moods), and--maybe most importantly of all--its written form on the page, and its read-aloud sound. i wish i could include an audio clip of someone with a nice voice (and a knowledge of classical chinese!) reading these poems. hmm. perhaps i will stumble upon something like that as i continue to dig around :]


**

and because since i've been back in massachusetts, the weather has been persistently, stubbornly rainy and somewhat chilly...

although it's technically already summer...

春雨

倀臥新春百袷衣
白門寥落意多違
紅樓隔雨相望冷
珠箔飄燈獨自歸
遠路應悲春晼晚
殘宵猶得夢依稀
玉璫緘札何由達
萬里雲蘿一雁飛

Spring Rain

I am lying in a white-lined coat while the spring approaches,
But am thinking only of the White Gate City where I cannot be.
...There are two red chambers fronting the cold, hidden by the rain,
And a lantern on a pearl screen swaying my lone heart homeward.
...The long road ahead will be full of new hardship,
With, late in the nights, brief intervals of dream.
Oh, to send you this message, this pair of jade earrings! –
I watch a lonely wildgoose in three thousand miles of cloud.


&

凉思

客去波平檻
蟬休露滿枝
永懷當此節
倚立自移時
北斗兼春遠
南陵寓使遲
天涯占夢數
疑誤有新知

Thoughts in the Cold

You are gone. The river is high at my door.
Cicadas are mute on dew-laden boughs.
This is a moment when thoughts enter deep.
I stand alone for a long while.
...The North Star is nearer to me now than spring,
And couriers from your southland never arrive –
Yet I doubt my dream on the far horizon
That you have found another friend.


the line "the river is high at my door" reminds me of fiona apple's cover of "River, Stay Away From My Door." listen here :] also, these poems have got me in the mood to listen to marissa nadler's new album, Little Hells. the mood and some of the lyrics in nadler's music goes along quite well with the mood and lyrical wordplay of 李商隱.

and i think i just have to make one of 李商隱's an end-of-posts motto or mantra of sorts, i.e. the last line of 無題 其二:

一寸相思一寸灰