孟郊诗
Poems of Meng Jiao
Index
夜集汝州郡斋听陆僧辩弹琴
Night gathering, in one of the Ru Prefecture halls, to hear Monk Lu discuss playing qin
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康乐宠词客 清宵意无穷 征文北山外 借月南楼中 |
High entertainment bestowed on poet guests. Clear night, ideas without end. Scholars come from beyond Luoyang For the moonlight, they say, on South Tower. |
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千里愁并尽 一樽欢暂同 胡为戛楚琴 淅沥起寒风 |
A thousand li of worries come to an end With a wine vessel and this moment of shared joy. He plays wild and lightly on a Chu qin And the sighing of a chill wind arises. |
-- 孟郊
废话
The Lu in the title could (should?) be the Lu Zhongcheng from the last two poems. Either he is a monk or, less likely, is discussing qin playing with monks. I have, going with convention, translated "qin" as "lute" in the past. But it is not a lute. A pipa (琵琶) is lute-like. Sometimes a qin (琴) or a se (瑟) is translated "zither." It's not a zither either. The qin is the Japanese koto now. The se is a much older more complex version of the same, complex as in many more strings. Meng Jiao calls Lu's instrument a Chu qin (楚琴) so it may be a se. Or Meng Jiao may be dragging in the Chu kingdom for another purpose.
The scholars are actually coming from beyond North Mountain, which is Mount Mang (邙山) by Luoyang. The sense of line 4 is that scholars are coming to South Tower using the moon as an excuse. This makes me think that Lu Zhongcheng, whose fine and interesting poetry did not make it down the centuries, might have been an outsider of some kind who managed to find a minor post after passing exams. Perhaps he was a Buddhist monk (ex-monk?) in a Daoist phase of the empire. Perhaps his family was on the outs in current politics like Bai Juyi's wife's family often was. Someone with access to more sources might find something interesting about Lu Zhongcheng if they were to look.