孟郊诗

Poems of Meng Jiao


Index

忽不贫喜卢仝书船归洛

Suddenly, happily, Lu Tong and his book boat return to Luoyang


贫孟忽不贫
请问孟何如
卢仝归洛船
崔嵬但载书

Suddenly poor Meng is no longer poor.
Hey, Meng, how does it feel?
Lu Tong and his boat are back in town.
Lofty man still publishing books.

江潮清翻翻
淮潮碧徐徐
夜信为朝信
朝信良卷舒

Luo's current, pure and overturning.
Huai's current like glacial jade.
Always steady, night and morning.
Mornings, its goodness ever unfolds.

江淮君子水
相送仁有馀
我去官色衫
肩经入君庐

Luo and Huai are gentlemen's rivers,
Seeing us off with humanity to spare.
I leave in my official clothes and
Shoulder my way into your cabin.

喃喃肩经郎
言语倾琪琚
琪琚铿好词
鸟鹊跃庭除

You mutter I should act my age.
Your words pour out like jewels.
Jewels that ring in their fine lines
Or dance like magpies in the yard.

书船平安归
喜报乡里闾
我愿拾遗柴
巢经于空虚

Book boat quietly returns.
Bringing joyful news from our old home.
I want to gather some firewood
For this nest of yours and its emptiness.

下免尘土侵
上为云霞居
日月更相锁
道义分明储

Let's not mourn the encroaching dust
But rise and dwell in colored clouds.
Life ever always chains us down.
But the good and just are not in vain.

不愿空岧峣
但愿实工夫
实空二理微
分别相起予

I don't want lofty heights.
I just want my work to be true.
Truth and emptiness, both profound.
Their differences nurture each other.

经书荒芜多
为君勉勉锄
勉勉不敢专
传之方在诸

Good books are falling into desolation.
Your work is the opposing force.
No one dare call your struggle selfish.
You pass on the legacy of all.

-- 孟郊


废话

What in heaven's name is 肩经? Or 巢经? "Shoulder Classic" and "Nest Classic"? Idioms for "shouldering one's way through" and "living in a bird's (rat's) nest"? Or maybe cryptic personal references between friends? Or simply lost usages of 1300 year-old speech? At least the sense I've made of the mysteries are of a piece with what can be known of the above. So it's your usual translation, when you get right down to it. But "Shoulder Classic"?


Index