孟郊诗
Poems of Meng Jiao
Index
品松
Savoring Naturalness
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追悲谢灵运 不得殊常封 纵然孔与颜 亦莫及此松 |
Recalling sadly Xie Lingyun, I can't tell if his poems are good or bad. Though badly written and superficial, I still can't achieve his level of naturalness. |
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此松天格高 耸异千万重 抓拏巨灵手 擘裂少室峰 |
This naturalness is Heaven-like, Profound, refreshingly unique. But seized by his giant divine hand, Poems burst, unable to remain upon the heights. |
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擘裂风雨狞 抓拏指爪傭 道入难抱心 学生易堕踪 |
They burst apart in a hideous manner Held by the fingers of his grotesque hand. They go where your mind cannot follow, The follower losing the self-destroyed trail. |
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时时数点仙 袅袅一线龙 霏微岚浪际 游戏颢兴浓 |
From time to time, it's a bit immortal, Graceful, like a slender dragon. As if there, beyond the distant hazy mist, Something brilliantly interesting were seen. |
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品松徒高高 雌鸣讵嗈嗈 赏异尚可贵 赏潜谁能容 |
This naturalness achieves its height in vain. Its birdsong ends in little chokes. There is something here to be praised but All in all who can tolerate these poems? |
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名华非典实 翦弃徒纤茸 刻削大雅文 所以不敢慵 |
Xie's fame is not something real, Just bits and pieces of useless, tiny fuzz. He exploits truly cultured poems Because he can't bring himself to be still. |
-- 孟郊
废话
Meng Jiao -- Gentle Critic. You don't have to ask yourself where he really stands on the subject of Xie Lingyun's poetry, do you? While I consider this translation as "true" to the original, it seems like I was changing his words to mine on almost every line. This was because either 1) we don't say it even remotely that way in English or 2) using his words would require the lines to be three or four times as long in order to make sense. Maybe 1) and 2) are the same thing.
Just one example: The final line is 所以不敢慵. More or less literally, this is "Because he doesn't dare be lazy." Which, to me, seems to be "Because he can't bring himself to be lazy and not bother writing this junk." Even with that, there are overtones of the original clamoring to be included. You can see what I settled on. As I've said before, my translations are only about a sixth part of what you'd get if you'd only bother to learn classical Chinese and simply read the original. Lazy reader, you are cheating yourself in settling for such a paltry portion of these treasures. Stop daring to be lazy.