孟郊诗
Poems of Meng Jiao
Index
南阳公请东樱桃亭子春宴
Duke Southern Sun invites Eastern Cherryblossom to a spring banquet pavilion
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万木皆未秀 一林先含春 此地独何力 我公布深仁 |
Ten thousand trees are not yet blooming. This one grove is first to cherish spring. What power lies alone in this place? As duke, I proclaim its deep kindness. |
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霜叶日舒卷 风枝远埃尘 初英濯紫霞 飞雨流清津 |
Frosted leaves unfurl in the sunlight as Branches are swept of dust by the winds. First blossoms wash clean the purple mists And driving rain flows in pure sheets. |
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赏异出嚣杂 折芳积欢忻 文心兹焉重 俗尚安能珍 |
One especially admires this flowering clamor As, gathering blossoms, one increases delight. Here the educated mind is made more profound And all minds can treasure this peace. |
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碧玉妆粉比 飞琼秾艳均 鸳鸯七十二 花态并相新 |
Adorned as if with emerald powder, Fluttering gems are resplendant everywhere. Undying love and faithfulness abound As all the blossoms bloom together. |
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常恐遗秀志 迨兹广宴陈 芳菲争胜引 歌咏竟良辰 |
Lest I leave behind my flowering desire, Wait here while I spread this banquet feast. How can I compete with flowering fragrance, As I sing here at the end of this sweet moment? |
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方知戏马会 永谢登龙宾 |
I only realized, as we rode back happily together, My eternal gratitude for having climbed Longbin. |
-- 孟郊
废话
Because of this poem's placement in the scrolls, this might be a love poem to Meng Jiao's second wife or wife-to-be. If the poem is true, he sang it to her at the end of a picnic in a pavilion on Dragon Guest Hill. Or that's the sense I make of 登龙宾, "climbing dragon guest." Line 15 "Undying love and faithfulness abound" comes from 鸳鸯七十二, which is "mandarin ducks seventy-two" or "symbol of marital fidelity twelve more than completeness." If there were seventy-two pairs of mandarin ducks by this pavilion, I'll eat a cherry tree. The final two lines would have been added later as Meng Jiao copied the poem into his collected works, unless he sang them in the present tense.