白居易诗

Poems of Bai Juyi


Index

秦吉了

The Mynah Bird


(哀冤民也)

(Sorrow of Man's Injustice)

秦吉了出南中
彩毛青黑花颈红

This mynah bird comes from the south.
Feathers bright green-black, red flower of a neck.

耳聪心慧舌端巧
鸟语人言无不通

Quick of hearing, clever mind, tongue extremely sharp.
Bird speech, man speech, both are his to use.

昨日长爪鸢
今朝大觜乌

Yesterday, a hawk's long claws.
At dawn, a crow's great beak.

鸢捎乳燕一窠覆
乌啄母鸡双眼枯

The hawk ripped a young swallow from its nest.
And the crow pecked the eyes out of a hen.

鸡号堕地燕惊去
然后拾卵攫其雏

Chickens screech and scatter. Swallows dart away.
Then the eggs are taken and the chicks are seized.

岂无雕与鹗
嗉中肉饱不肯搏

How can the crops of raptors not be
Full of meat if you are unwilling to fight?

亦有鸾鹤群
闲立高飏如不闻

There are also flocks of phoenix and crane
Idly soaring high, as if above it all.

秦吉了
人云尔是能言鸟

Mynah bird,
You speak with man and birds alike.

岂不见鸡燕之冤苦
吾闻凤凰百鸟主

How can you not see the bitter suffering of lesser birds?
I hear the phoenix rules the world of birds.

尔竟不为凤凰之前致一言
安用噪噪闲言语

You dare not speak a single word at his feet.
There you are content to babble only idle words.

-- 白居易


废话

秦吉了 can mean either "mynah bird" or a mythical bird who spoke the tongue of man. Maybe the former is descended from the latter. Bai Juyi might say so. To understand this poem, you must keep one thing in mind: it is not about birds.

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