孟郊诗
Poems of Meng Jiao
Index
春夜忆萧子真
Spring Night -- Remembering Xiao Zizhen
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半夜不成寐 灯尽又无月 独向阶前立 子规啼不歇 |
Night half gone. Still can't sleep. Lamp burns out. No moon. All alone. Standing by the stairs. Cuckoo sings without cease. |
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况我有金兰 忽尔为胡越 争得明镜中 久长无白发 |
You and I are sworn brothers. Suddenly, we're worlds apart. I try hard to be an empty mirror. But it's been ages since feeling old began. |
-- 孟郊
废话
This is an unusual, fortuitous translation. Not only does each short line naturally translate into a short line but each Tang idiom has a natural English equivalent. This is one of those poems which show an enduring, common humanity.
Cuckoo (子规) is a pun on "Go/Come home!" (子归). Both are pronounced zi3gui1. The bird is a trope for longing for someone's or one's own return. I've been told that only the European cuckoo cries "ku-ku." I suspect this is true. Otherwise, a part of the cuckoo trope would be 苦哭 (ku3ku1) or "bitter tears."