白居易诗
Poems of Bai Juyi
Index
长恨歌
Song of Long Regret
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汉皇重色思倾国 御宇多年求不得 杨家有女初长成 养在深闺人未识 |
The emperor's love for me was terrible. For many years, he could not be restrained. Of the Yang family daughters, I was eldest. Raised in the chambers of women, no one knew me. |
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天生丽质难自弃 一朝选在君王侧 回眸一笑百媚生 六宫粉黛无颜色 |
Heaven's gift of beauty was my hopeless fate. And then one day, he chose me for his companion. I glanced at him and smiled. His flattery was endless. And six palaces of concubines became faceless women. |
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春寒赐浴华清池 温泉水滑洗凝脂 侍儿扶起娇无力 始是新承恩泽时 |
In the cold of spring, we bathed in splendid, clear pools. In slippery hot springs, he washed my creamy skin. The slave girls in attendance were delicate and frail. From the first, his favors were an unending demand. |
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云鬓花颜金步摇 芙蓉帐暖度春宵 春宵苦短日高起 从此君王不早朝 |
My hair decked with flowers, my clothing with gold, We spent a warm night beneath a flowered awning. He called that night too short, that sunrise too early, And never again did he attend his morning court. |
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承欢侍宴无闲暇 春从春游夜专夜 后宫佳丽三千人 三千宠爱在一身 |
He catered to my happiness -- banquets without cease. Spring to spring we fested. Each night was the same. In his inner courts, there were three thousand of us. Three thousands doting on one man. |
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金屋妆成娇侍夜 玉楼宴罢醉和春 姊妹弟兄皆列土 可怜光彩生门户 |
In golden chambers, we prepared, dreading the night. In jade towers, banquets ended, drunken, full of lust. Men and women, all of us, each with rank and place, Our pathetic splendor was nothing but a brothel. |
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遂令天下父母心 不重生男重生女 骊宫高处入青云 仙乐风飘处处闻 |
Let all under Heaven receive this command: Let no men be reborn. Bear only women. Let virtue enter the towers of Black Horse Palace. And let the music of Heaven, floating, fill the skies. |
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缓歌慢舞凝丝竹 尽日君王看不足 渔阳鼙鼓动地来 惊破霓裳羽衣曲 |
Revive the slow dances, the songs, the true music. The entire day is for more than tending the emperor. Else horse-borne wardrums will come to shake the land And overwhelm your precious, drunken singing. |
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九重城阙烟尘生 千乘万骑西南行 翠华摇摇行复止 西出都门百余里 |
Smoke and dust emerges from our nine city gates. Marching southwest, ten thousand mounted troops approach. Fields of blue flowers tremble and fall silent. Our enemies are but one hundred miles away. |
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六军不发无奈何 宛转蛾眉马前死 花钿委地无人收 翠翘金雀玉搔头 |
Six great armies unprepared - what are we to do? Fragile, floating butterflies must die beneath wild hooves. The wealthy now must forfeit what they cannot keep: Blue kingfisher headdresses, hairpins of gold and jade. |
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君王掩面救不得 回看血泪相和流 黄埃散漫风萧索 云栈萦纡登剑阁 |
He hides his face in shame. He cannot save us. I look back and we are both crying tears of blood. Yellow dust is everywhere in this desolate wind. Clouds lower as we flounder, fleeing south. |
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峨嵋山下少人行 旌旗无光日色薄 蜀江水碧蜀山青 圣主朝朝暮暮情 |
Descending Emei Mountain, few of us remain. In the sun's weak light, our banners all seem faded. Sichuan rivers all are green. Sichuan mountains, blue. And everywhere, the presence of the Buddha. |
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行宫见月伤心色 夜雨闻铃肠断声 天旋地转回龙驭 到此踌躇不能去 |
In a makeshift palace, we watch the moon and grieve. Bells chime so sadly in the rainy nights. The world goes on. But it ignores the emperor. Before, he was hesitant. Now, he is powerless. |
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马嵬坡下泥土中 不见玉颜空死处 君臣相顾尽沾衣 东望都门信马归 |
Our troops descend the rocky slopes to battle in the mud. Fair faces I once knew are now emptied by death. He and his ministers now cease their sorrow, Turn east for home, and let the horses pick their way. |
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归来池苑皆依旧 太液芙蓉未央柳 芙蓉如面柳如眉 对此如何不泪垂 |
At our return, the gardens all are as they were before. Lotuses in the Great Pool float beneath the willows. Lotuses, like faces. Willows, like eyebrows. Why is the pool not filled with their tears? |
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春风桃李花开夜 秋雨梧桐叶落时 西宫南苑多秋草 落叶满阶红不扫 |
Spring wind - plums and peaches blossom in the night. Autumn rain - parasol trees all shed their leaves. By my palace and the hunting park, the grass is dry. Red, fallen leaves cover all the unswept stairs. |
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梨园弟子白发新 椒房阿监青娥老 夕殿萤飞思悄然 孤灯挑尽未成眠 |
The royal actors all have new white hairs and The empress' girls and eunuchs all seem older. At dusk, the fireflies keep my sad thoughts company. The last lamp gutters and still I cannot sleep. |
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迟迟钟鼓初长夜 耿耿星河欲曙天 鸳鸯瓦冷霜华重 翡翠衾寒谁与共 |
Bells and drums of the watch measure this slow night. A river of stars overhead yearns for the dawn. Faithful lovers outlast the cold and frost. Alone beneath this quilt, who will comfort me? |
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悠悠生死别经年 魂魄不曾来入梦 临邛道士鸿都客 能以精诚致魂魄 |
Life and death were never like this before. My soul never came to me in dreams. Daoist Linqiong, who lives out with the geese, told me Absolute sincerity would release my dreaming soul. |
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为感君王辗转思 遂教方士殷勤觅 排空驭气奔如电 升天入地求之遍 |
The emperor turns and tosses all night in his guilt. I beg him, let me find a healer for his mind. He needs to rise up and fly, like a bolt of fire. He prays only for death, a long sleep underground. |
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上穷碧落下黄泉 两处茫茫皆不见 忽闻海上有仙山 山在虚无缥渺间 |
I fell from Heaven down to the Yellow Springs. Two distant places no living man has seen. They told me these were the Immortal Isles Where the firmament stands, engulfed by mists. |
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楼阁玲珑五云起 其中绰约多仙子 中有一人字太真 雪肤花貌参差是 |
By an exquisite tower, five clouds rose, and On those clouds stood a host of immortals. Among them was the woman, Greatest Purity, Whose snowy skin and flowery aspect set her apart. |
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金阙西厢叩玉扃 转教小玉报双成 闻道汉家天子使 九华帐里梦魂惊 |
By the jade-bolted golden western gate, I bowed. I turned the small jade key; the great doors parted. Behind nine veils, my now-enlightened emperor sat And this startled my dreaming soul from sleep. |
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揽衣推枕起徘徊 珠箔银屏迤逦开 云鬓半偏新睡觉 花冠不整下堂来 |
I gathered my clothes, rose, and paced the floor, Parted pearl-hung curtains, walked past silvered screens. My hair hung down about my shoulders and my cap Of feathers was still awry as I entered the great hall. |
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风吹仙袂飘飖举 犹似霓裳羽衣舞 玉容寂寞泪栏干 梨花一枝春带雨 |
The wind blew my clothes about me, just like in Our favorite, precious, drunken song. My face was cold. Tears stained my silk. A single pear branch blossomed in the spring rain. |
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含情凝睇谢君王 一别音容两渺茫 昭阳殿里恩爱绝 蓬莱宫中日月长 |
Grateful feelings filled me as I stood before him. But his face was distant, as if already dead. In that sunlit hall, our love came to its end. Among the Immortals, time lasts too long. |
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回头下望人寰处 不见长安见尘雾 惟将旧物表深情 钿合金钗寄将去 |
I turned away, looked down into the human world. I couldn't see the city, only clouds of dust. Only a lost past remained where love had been. From my box, I left a hairpin and was gone. |
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钗留一股合一扇 钗擘黄金合分钿 但教心似金钿坚 天上人间会相见 |
Golden hairpin, like a thread back to what I lost. I could break it in my hand and sell the gold. But it meant more to my heart than money could. In this world or the next, we would meet again. |
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临别殷勤重寄词 词中有誓两心知 七月七日长生殿 夜半无人私语时 |
I want to say a word before I go, A kind of vow between two loving minds. When lovers in the palace are forced apart, At midnight, there is no one to whisper with. |
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在天愿作比翼鸟 在地愿为连理枝 天长地久有时尽 此恨绵绵无绝期 |
In Heaven, we will always be together. On Earth, our hearts will always be entwined. And even if Heaven and Earth should have an ending, My long regret in losing you will never cease. |
-- 白居易
废话
This is perhaps Bai Juyi's most famous poem. He wrote it in 806. It became so popular that one singing girl was able to double her price by memorizing this long song. The song is about the earlier Tang emperor, Xuanzong, and his favorite concubine, Yang Guifei. Guifei was an older aunt of the wives of both Bai Juyi and of Du Fu. The emperor was smitten with her and, as the poem indicates, neglected his duties, preferring to, mmm, dally with Yang Guifei.
The real story was this: The emperor really was smitten with Guifei. She came from a very political family and her uncle, Yang Guozhong, was the emperor's chief minister. A general An Lushan was very popular at the imperial court, somewhat involved with Yang Guifei, calling himself her adopted son. And he was also very ambitious. So ambitous that Chief Minister Yang Guozhong called for his dismissal. An Lushan goes home to the northeast in 755, rebels, and proclaims the establishment of the Yan dynasty. An Lushan leads his armies southwest towards Chang'an. The ups and downs of the war, along with the intrigues between powerful ministers and powerful eunuchs in Xuanzong's court, lead to Yang Guozhong falling out of favor. When the court is forced to flee Chang'an, these intrigues come to a head. At this point the army loathes Yang Guozhong, blaming him for losing control of the country. Things get ugly just down the road from Chang'an on their flight. The soldiers demand the death of Guozhong -- and of Guifei. Guozhong and other members of his family are murdered in a near-mutiny of the troops. And the emperor is forced to have Guifei strangled. Historically speaking, Guifei is out of the picture just after leaving Chang'an. Xuanzong continues his flight to Sichuan. This is in 756. Long story short, this forced flight of the emperor leads to his son, Suzong, seizing power in order to fight An Lushan. Xuanzong abdicates in exile, returns eventually to the capital, and dies in 762. Until his death, he never gets over his love for Yang Guifei. Eventually he turns to a Daoist magician in order to reach out to Guifei in the afterlife. Xuanzong is so mentally gone at this point that the magician is able to con him out of who knows how much money by bringing the emperor a gold hairpin from Guifei, who now lives happily in the Immortal Isles.
Bai Juyi's readers would have known all this. So for them, his poem has the ghostly Guifei lingering alongside the emperor in his Sichuan exile, through his return to Chang'an, and into his declining years. She only leaves him when his guilt can no longer bear her presence. The dreamlike quality of the poem tends to blunt all the hard edges of the story. Where popular opinion would blame Guifei for the emperor's failure, Bai manages to gently move the blame back onto Xuanzong. The strangulation becomes a lovely leavetaking. The abdication is left unmentioned. Only the basic story and the love between Xuanzong and Guifei remains.
Translating this poem, I gained a new understanding of art. A piece of art is that which, if you spend enough time with it, changes you into a different person. Not so different that other people will notice. But different enough inside that your understanding of the world has changed.