孟郊诗
Poems of Meng Jiao
Index
读张碧集
Reading aloud Zhang's "Jade Collection"
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天宝太白殁 六义已消歇 大哉国风本 丧而王泽竭 |
Heaven's treasure, the morning star, is dead And all right conduct is extinguished. How is it the great roots of China's ways are Buried and royalty's brilliance exhausted? |
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先生今复生 斯文信难缺 下笔证兴亡 陈词备风骨 |
An ancient master is today again among us, His cultured expression almost without a flaw. His brush establishes our kingdom's rise and fall. His plea displays true strength of character. |
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高秋数奏琴 澄潭一轮月 谁作采诗官 忍之不挥发 |
In autumn coolness the concerts are many. In a limpid pool, a huge round moon. Who will perform this poem collector's work So it will endure and not fade away? |
-- 孟郊
废话
The title seems to refer to a blockprinted collection of poems by someone surnamed Zhang. This could be either of the Zhang Ji's we have encountered. But if neither of them were a "poem gathering official" (采诗官), it must be someone else. Such an official was sent by the emperor to gather popular poems and songs as a kind of reading or measure of popular thinking. So these poems could be Zhang's poetry inspired by what he gathered or they could be the gathered poems themselves. I would guess, from Meng Jiao's description, they are the former.
Also interesting here is the statement that in the autumn's coolness there are many "concerts" of poets (who are also, of course, officials or other members of the cultured classes) playing their qins in public and chanting their poetry.
And lastly, there is the allusion to some recent royal death. We can't know who Meng Jiao is thinking of here. But his audience certainly would have. It might well have been the death of emperor Dezong, who died in 805.