孟郊诗

Poems of Meng Jiao


Index

感怀

Feeling the Absence


秋气悲万物
惊风振长道
登高有所思
寒雨伤百草

Autumn's spirit saddens everything
As harsh winds push me down the road.
I climbed these heights to think of you
Only to watch a cold rain spoil the flowers.

平生有亲爱
零落不相保
五情今已伤
安得自能老

My whole life now I've loved you
But we can't protect each other from decay.
All my senses are now damaged goods.
How is it I continue growing old?

晨登洛阳坂
目极天茫茫
群物归大化
六龙颓西荒

As dawn comes to the hills above Luoyang,
Heaven stretches on and on, forever.
Migrating flocks respond to the season and,
In western wastes, six dragons decay.

豺狼日已多
草木日已霜
饥年无遗粟
众鸟去空场

The cruel and the evil flourish
While living things are covered o'er on frost.
A year of hunger with no grain left over
Has even the birds abandoning these fields.

路傍谁家子
白首离故乡
含酸望松柏
仰面诉穹苍

Whose are these houses by the roadside?
The elderly have left their ancient home.
Bitterly, they look for honest virtue and,
Looking up, they lay the blame on Heaven.

去去勿复道
苦饥形貌伤

Go and don't come back.
All you leave behind is bitter hunger.

徘徊不能寐
耿耿含酸辛
中夜登高楼
忆我旧星辰

The dithering and hesitant can't sleep.
The clever savor their bitter misery.
I climb an old tower in the darkness
Just to remember how the stars used to be.

四时互迁移
万物何时春
唯忆首阳路
永谢当时人

Four seasons turn and turn again.
All creatures now are yearning for the spring.
Remembering the road through Shouyang,
I realize we are forever dwindling.

长安佳丽地
宫月生蛾眉
阴气凝万里
坐看芳草衰

Chang'an is a beautiful place,
Pretty women beneath a palace moon.
Their decadence congeals for miles around.
You can sit and watch the virtue fade.

玉堂有玄鸟
亦以从此辞
伤哉志士叹
故国多迟迟

The powerful families are strange birds.
They too are dwindling away.
The pain of it makes a good man sigh
As he watches his homeland pass away.

深宫岂无乐
扰扰复何为
朝见名与利
莫还生是非

How could there be joy in the Forbidden Palace?
Why must discords come to us again?
Our courtiers look only for fame and gain.
Not returning to our origins is their error.

姜牙佐周武
世业永巍巍

Jiang Ya came to help Zhou's king.
Our ancestors were forever lofty.

举才天道亲
首阳谁采薇
去去荒泽远
落日当西归

Raising up the talented is Heaven's way
But who picks roses now in Shouyang?
Go, and leave this desolation, to where
The sun returns to set now in the west.

羲和驻其轮
四海借馀晖
极目何萧索
惊风正离披

When Fuxi halted his chariots
The four seas shone with borrowed splendor.
Now, only desolation, far as eye can see
And the gulf is torn open at our feet.

鸱鸮鸣高树
众鸟相因依
东方有一士
岁暮常苦饥

The owls cry in the tall trees and
Flocks of little birds cluster together.
In the east, all scholars are
In their dotage, trying not to starve.

主人数相问
脉脉今何为
贫贱亦有乐
且愿掩柴扉

The masters begin to ask each other,
Why can't we be loving in these times?
The poor also have their happiness
And even try to hide their poverty.

火云流素月
三五何明明
光曜侵白日
贤愚迷至精

Red clouds flow around the moon.
How bright some seem to me.
The daystar invades broad daylight,
Wise and foolish dazzled by its brilliance.

四时更变化
天道有亏盈
常恐今已没
须臾还复生

The seasons' changes intensify.
Heaven's way waxes and wanes.
I often fear the present is already drowned.
But in each moment it springs to life again.

河梁暮相遇
草草不复言
汉家正离乱
王粲别荆蛮

That evening, we parted on the bridge
And sadness made it hard to speak.
Our country was torn apart by war,
An emperor hiding in the wilderness.

野泽何萧条
悲风振空山
举头是星辰
念我何时还

Wild marshes, a desolate road,
Sad winds shaking the empty hills.
I lift my head to see the stars and
Ask myself, When will I return?

亲爱久别散
形神各离迁
未为生死诀
长在心目间

Been a long time, since our love ended.
My mind and body are no longer the same.
It's not that I'm dying to see you
But it seems you're still on my mind.

有鸟东西来
哀鸣过我前
愿飞浮云外
饮啄见青天

The birds here are flying east to west and
They wail right now above my head.
I want to fly beyond these clouds, and drink,
And peck, and see blue skies.

-- 孟郊


废话

We have three poems here. Three chaotic poems. But I think I can make some sense of them and of some other things about Meng Jiao which rise out of this chaos. It's the ninth of the ninth, the Chinese day of the dead. Meng Jiao is in Chang'an, a long way from the tomb of his first wife. So he goes up in the hills above the city to pay his respects and think about her.

But being a poet, one thought leads to another. And the love for his first wife becomes his love of China. Shouyang is mentioned more than once. This is where the emperor of the Chu fled to when invaded by the Qin. But we have a current emperor fleeing into the marshes in this poem. Dezong was a boy when he was forced to flee Chang'an during the An Lushan Rebellion. Just as he became emperor, he had to flee again due to another rebellion. This put him in a bad mood which, as we saw elsewhere, had him putting his critics, including female Daoist poets, to death on his return. Dezong fled Chang'an in 783, when Meng Jiao was 32. And, according to our poem here, that was when Meng Jiao parted from his second love, the one who didn't bring him a willow branch when they parted on the bridge.

As we can see, he's gotten over most of the pain of their parting. But he still misses her. And it is this Lover Number Two who he ends up feeling the absence of in this poem. Sort of. Because, really, he'd just as soon turn into a bird and fly away. And she doesn't occupy his thoughts as much as the plain people do, who Meng Jiao has lived among.


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