白居易诗
Poems of Bai Juyi
Index
采诗官
Song-Gatherer
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(监前王乱亡之由也) |
(Presenting the king with the causes of disorder.) |
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采诗官 采诗听歌导人言 |
Gatherer of songs, You hear them hoping to guide our words. |
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言者无罪闻者诫 下流上通上下泰 |
Speakers guiltless, hearers admonished, Lowly and masters, both at peace. |
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周灭秦兴至隋氏 十代采诗官不置 |
Zhou's destruction, Qin's expansion, clans of Sui. From ten dynasties you gather without censorship. |
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郊庙登歌赞君美 乐府艳词悦君意 |
You praise the goodness of a temple's hymn, Delight in the romance of an ancient lyric. |
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若求兴谕规刺言 万句千章无一字 |
From above, you hope to exclude your critics So that not one bad word is found in ten thousand lines. |
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不是章句无规刺 渐及朝廷绝讽议 |
But there is no poetry without criticism, Slowly reaching the court, only to be turned away. |
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诤臣杜口为冗员 谏鼓高悬作虚器 |
Honest officials stand in silence, superfluous men. Formal complaints and pronouncements fall on emptiness. |
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一人负扆常端默 百辟入门两自媚 |
The hidden betrayer casts a shadow of silence. Princes and dukes feed on each others' flattery. |
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夕郎所贺皆德音 春官每奏唯祥瑞 |
Waning officials praise everything in virtuous tones. Rites are performed only to curry fortune. |
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君之堂兮千里远 君之门兮九重閟 |
There you are, a thousand miles away. Your gates are inaccessible to us. |
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君耳唯闻堂上言 君眼不见门前事 |
Your ears hear only palace speech. Your eyes are trapped within your gates. |
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贪吏害民无所忌 奸臣蔽君无所畏 |
Venal officials harm the people without scruple. Traitors hide behind you without fear. |
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君不见厉王胡亥之末年 群臣有利君无利 |
You fail to see the echoes of Chu's waning years, When courtiers, and not the king, held power. |
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君兮君兮愿听此 欲开壅蔽达人情 先向歌诗求讽刺 |
O my king, hear these words. Let our feelings breach your mighty walls. Begin to hear the criticism in our songs. |
-- 白居易
废话
Song-gathering officials were used to monitor the attitudes of the people. But, as Bai Juyi points out, they did not gather the real poetry of the people. He correctly identifies the emperor as the real song gatherer. And the rest of the poem follows from that.
This is the final poem in Bai Juyi's New Yuefu collection. Let's talk about this collection of poems. Bai Juyi appears to have written the work's manifesto. And he appears to have selected the poems from his own work, as well as from Yuan Zhen's and at least two other poets'. Interestingly, all 50 poems are now treated by academics as if they were written by Bai Juyi. Why is this?
Well, all of Bai Juyi's poetry comes to us from his having compiled it and then arranged with monasteries for its preservation. Obviously, he included the New Yuefu collection. So these 50 poems, by at least four authors, are not attributed. They and their immediate readership knew who had written what and that was good enough for them.
Consider that at no time were these poems commodities. There was no relation between them and money. Neither were their authors considered poets in the modern sense. They were minor officials who, as cultured men, wrote poetry. While some of their poetry was wildly popular, these men were never advertised or promoted as poets. Any celebrity they may have had was a natural consequence of their work. Now think about living in a world as natural and direct as that.