孟郊诗
Poems of Meng Jiao
Index
汴州离乱后忆韩愈李翱
After leaving war-torn Kaifeng, remembering Han Yu and Li Ao
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会合一时哭 别离三断肠 残花不待风 春尽各飞扬 |
Meeting you, I'm moved to tears. Parting, thrice-broken heart. Withered flowers don't wait for a breeze. Spring over, each simply floats away. |
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欢去收不得 悲来难自防 孤门清馆夜 独卧明月床 |
Happiness goes, can't get it back. Sadness comes, I can't avoid it. Lonely gate, peaceful inn, night, I lie alone in a moonlit bed. |
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忠直血白刃 道路声苍黄 食恩三千士 一旦为豺狼 |
Devoted, righteous, a bloody naked blade On a road filled with the sounds of panic, Showing mercy to the three thousand warriors Who all at once have turned to evil. |
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海岛士皆直 夷门士非良 人心既不类 天道亦反常 |
On immortal isles, all men are righteous. At the Barbarian Gate, they are otherwise. Men's hearts have changed already and Even Heaven seems perverse. |
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自杀与彼杀 未知何者臧 |
I kill and others kill, not yet Knowing what good will come of it. |
-- 孟郊
废话
Surely, we are in the midst of chaos, dynasty-wise. Things never were stable after An Lushan. And, I think, this poem answers the question of whether Meng Jiao wields a sword. It appears that, in this chaos, he has killed upon the road.
Han Yu and Li Ao were political thinkers of Meng Jiao's time. They come down to us as "philosophers" and "essayists" but I think this does them a disservice. It's one thing to philosophize, like a Zizek, in the comfort of late capitalism. It's another thing to think and act in the actual chaos of violent times. And it's a greater thing for that thinking to be influential and to remain so for centuries.
When Meng Jiao writes of "showing mercy," it's hard to tell if he is speaking of Han Yu's and Li Ao's words concerning the rebellion and the treacheries involved or about his own thoughts and actions on the road.
The Barbarian Gate was the main gate of the capital of Wei in the Warring States period.