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2009年3月11日星期三

琵琶行并序 THE SONG OF A GUITAR

琵琶行并序
白居易
元和十年,予左迁九江郡司马。明年秋,送客 湓浦口,闻船中夜弹琵琶者,听其音,铮铮然 有京都声;问其人,本长安倡女,尝学琵琶于 穆曹二善才。年长色衰,委身为贾人妇。遂命 酒,使快弹数曲,曲罢悯然。自叙少小时欢乐 事,今漂沦憔悴,转徙于江湖间。予出官二年 恬然自安,感斯人言,是夕,始觉有迁谪意, 因为长句歌以赠之,凡六百一十六言,命曰琵 琶行。

浔阳江头夜送客, 枫叶荻花秋瑟瑟。
主人下马客在船, 举酒欲饮无管弦。
醉不成欢惨将别, 别时茫茫江浸月。
忽闻水上琵琶声, 主人忘归客不发。
寻声暗问弹者谁? 琵琶声停欲语迟。
移船相近邀相见, 添酒回灯重开宴。
千呼万唤始出来, 犹抱琵琶半遮面。
转轴拨弦三两声, 未成曲调先有情。
弦弦掩抑声声思, 似诉平生不得志。
低眉信手续续弹, 说尽心中无限事。
轻拢慢捻抹复挑, 初为霓裳后六么。
大弦嘈嘈如急雨, 小弦切切如私语。
嘈嘈切切错杂弹, 大珠小珠落玉盘。
间官莺语花底滑, 幽咽泉流水下滩。
水泉冷涩弦凝绝, 凝绝不通声渐歇。
别有幽愁暗恨生, 此时无声胜有声。
银瓶乍破水浆迸, 铁骑突出刀鎗鸣。
曲终收拨当心画, 四弦一声如裂帛。
东船西舫悄无言, 唯见江心秋月白。
沈吟放拨插弦中, 整顿衣裳起敛容。
自言本是京城女, 家在虾蟆陵下住。
十三学得琵琶成, 名属教坊第一部。
曲罢曾教善才服, 妆成每被秋娘妒,
五陵年少争缠头, 一曲红绡不知数。
钿头银篦击节碎, 血色罗裙翻酒污。
今年欢笑复明年, 秋月春风等闲度。
弟走从军阿姨死, 暮去朝来颜色故。
门前冷落车马稀, 老大嫁作商人妇。
商人重利轻别离, 前月浮梁买茶去。
去来江口守空船, 绕船月明江水寒。
夜深忽梦少年事, 梦啼妆泪红阑干,
我闻琵琶已叹息, 又闻此语重唧唧。
同是天涯沦落人, 相逢何必曾相识。
我从去年辞帝京, 谪居卧病浔阳城。
浔阳地僻无音乐, 终岁不闻丝竹声。
住近湓江地低湿, 黄芦苦竹绕宅生。
其间旦暮闻何物, 杜鹃啼血猿哀鸣。
春江花朝秋月夜, 往往取酒还独倾。
岂无山歌与村笛? 呕哑嘲哳难为听。
今夜闻君琵琶语, 如听仙乐耳暂明。
莫辞更坐弹一曲, 为君翻作琵琶行。
感我此言良久立, 却坐促弦弦转急。
凄凄不似向前声, 满座重闻皆掩泣。
座中泣下谁最多, 江州司马青衫湿。
THE SONG OF A GUITAR
Bai Chuyi
In the tenth year of Yuanhe I was banished and demoted to be assistant official in Jiujiang. In the summer of the next year I was seeing a friend leave Penpu and heard in the midnight from a neighbouring boat a guitar played in the manner of the capital. Upon inquiry,
I found that the player had formerly been a dancing-girl there and in her maturity had been married to a merchant. I invited her to my boat to have her play for us.
She told me her story, heyday and then unhappiness.
Since my departure from the capital I had not felt sad; but that night, after I left her,
I began to realize my banishment.And I wrote this long poem -- six hundred and twelve characters.

I was bidding a guest farewell, at night on the Xunyang River,
Where maple-leaves and full-grown rushes rustled in the autumn.
I, the host, had dismounted, my guest had boarded his boat,
And we raised our cups and wished to drink-but, alas, there was no music.
For all we had drunk we felt no joy and were parting from each other,
When the river widened mysteriously toward the full moon --
We had heard a sudden sound, a guitar across the water.
Host forgot to turn back home, and guest to go his way.
We followed where the melody led and asked the player's name.
The sound broke off...then reluctantly she answered.
We moved our boat near hers, invited her to join us,
Summoned more wine and lanterns to recommence our banquet.
Yet we called and urged a thousand times before she started toward us,
Still hiding half her face from us behind her guitar....
She turned the tuning-pegs and tested several strings;
We could feel what she was feeling, even before she played:
Each string a meditation, each note a deep thought,
As if she were telling us the ache of her whole life.
She knit her brows, flexed her fingers, then began her music,
Little by little letting her heart share everything with ours.
She brushed the strings, twisted them slow, swept them, plucked them --
First the air of The Rainbow Skirt, then The Six Little Ones.
The large strings hummed like rain,
The small strings whispered like a secret,
Hummed, whispered-and then were intermingled
Like a pouring of large and small pearls into a plate of jade.
We heard an oriole, liquid, hidden among flowers.
We heard a brook bitterly sob along a bank of sand...
By the checking of its cold touch, the very string seemed broken
As though it could not pass; and the notes, dying away
Into a depth of sorrow and concealment of lament,
Told even more in silence than they had told in sound....
A silver vase abruptly broke with a gush of water,
And out leapt armored horses and weapons that clashed and smote --
And, before she laid her pick down, she ended with one stroke,
And all four strings made one sound, as of rending silk
There was quiet in the east boat and quiet in the west,
And we saw the white autumnal moon enter the river's heart....
When she had slowly placed the pick back among the strings,
She rose and smoothed her clothing and, formal, courteous,
Told us how she had spent her girlhood at the capital,
Living in her parents' house under the Mount of Toads,
And had mastered the guitar at the age of thirteen,
With her name recorded first in the class-roll of musicians,
Her art the admiration even of experts,
Her beauty the envy of all the leading dancers,
How noble youths of Wuling had lavishly competed
And numberless red rolls of silk been given for one song,
And silver combs with shell inlay been snapped by her rhythms,
And skirts the colour of blood been spoiled with stains of wine....
Season after season, joy had followed joy,
Autumn moons and spring winds had passed without her heeding,
Till first her brother left for the war, and then her aunt died,
And evenings went and evenings came, and her beauty faded --
With ever fewer chariots and horses at her door;
So that finally she gave herself as wife to a merchant
Who, prizing money first, careless how he left her,
Had gone, a month before, to Fuliang to buy tea.
And she had been tending an empty boat at the river's mouth,
No company but the bright moon and the cold water.
And sometimes in the deep of night she would dream of her triumphs
And be wakened from her dreams by the scalding of her tears.
Her very first guitar-note had started me sighing;
Now, having heard her story, I was sadder still.
"We are both unhappy -- to the sky's end.
We meet. We understand. What does acquaintance matter?
I came, a year ago, away from the capital
And am now a sick exile here in Jiujiang --
And so remote is Jiujiang that I have heard no music,
Neither string nor bamboo, for a whole year.
My quarters, near the River Town, are low and damp,
With bitter reeds and yellowed rushes all about the house.
And what is to be heard here, morning and evening?
--The bleeding cry of cuckoos, the whimpering of apes.
On flowery spring mornings and moonlit autumn nights
I have often taken wine up and drunk it all alone,
Of course there are the mountain songs and the village pipes,
But they are crude and-strident, and grate on my ears.
And tonight, when I heard you playing your guitar,
I felt as if my hearing were bright with fairymusic.
Do not leave us. Come, sit down. Play for us again.
And I will write a long song concerning a guitar."
...Moved by what I said, she stood there for a moment,
Then sat again to her strings-and they sounded even sadder,
Although the tunes were different from those she had played before....
The feasters, all listening, covered their faces.
But who of them all was crying the most?
This Jiujiang official. My blue sleeve was wet.

长恨歌 A SONG OF UNENDING SORROW

长恨歌
白居易
汉皇重色思倾国, 御宇多年求不得。

杨家有女初长成, 养在深闺人未识。
天生丽质难自弃, 一朝选在君王侧;
回眸一笑百媚生, 六宫粉黛无颜色。
春寒赐浴华清池, 温泉水滑洗凝脂;
侍儿扶起娇无力, 始是新承恩泽时。
云鬓花颜金步摇, 芙蓉帐暖度春宵;
春宵苦短日高起, 从此君王不早朝。
承欢侍宴无闲暇, 春从春游夜专夜。
后宫佳丽三千人, 三千宠爱在一身。
金星妆成娇侍夜, 玉楼宴罢醉和春。
姊妹弟兄皆列士, 可怜光彩生门户;
遂令天下父母心, 不重生男重生女。
骊宫高处入青云, 仙乐风飘处处闻;
缓歌慢舞凝丝竹, 尽日君王看不足。
渔阳鼙鼓动地来, 惊破霓裳羽衣曲。
九重城阙烟尘生, 千乘万骑西南行。
翠华摇摇行复止, 西出都门百余里。
六军不发无奈何? 宛转蛾眉马前死。
花钿委地无人收, 翠翘金雀玉搔头。
君王掩面救不得, 回看血泪相和流。
黄埃散漫风萧索, 云栈萦纡登剑阁。
峨嵋山下少人行, 旌旗无光日色薄。
蜀江水碧蜀山青, 圣主朝朝暮暮情。
行宫见月伤心色, 夜雨闻铃肠断声。
天旋地转回龙驭, 到此踌躇不能去。
马嵬坡下泥土中, 不见玉颜空死处。
君臣相顾尽沾衣, 东望都门信马归。
归来池苑皆依旧, 太液芙蓉未央柳;
芙蓉如面柳如眉, 对此如何不泪垂?
春风桃李花开日, 秋雨梧桐叶落时。
西宫南内多秋草, 落叶满阶红不扫。
梨园子弟白发新, 椒房阿监青娥老。
夕殿萤飞思悄然, 孤灯挑尽未成眠。
迟迟钟鼓初长夜, 耿耿星河欲曙天。
鸳鸯瓦冷霜华重, 翡翠衾寒谁与共?
悠悠生死别经年, 魂魄不曾来入梦。
临邛道士鸿都客, 能以精诚致魂魄;
为感君王辗转思, 遂教方士殷勤觅。
排空驭气奔如电, 升天入地求之遍;
上穷碧落下黄泉, 两处茫茫皆不见。
忽闻海上有仙山, 山在虚无缥缈间;
楼阁玲珑五云起, 其中绰约多仙子。
中有一人字太真, 雪肤花貌参差是。
金阙西厢叩玉扃, 转教小玉报双成。
闻道汉家天子使, 九华帐里梦魂惊。
揽衣推枕起徘徊, 珠箔银屏迤逦开,
云鬓半偏新睡觉, 花冠不整下堂来。
风吹仙袂飘飘举, 犹似霓裳羽衣舞;
玉容寂寞泪阑干, 梨花一枝春带雨。
含情凝睇谢君王, 一别音容两渺茫。
昭阳殿里恩爱绝, 蓬莱宫中日月长。
回头下望人寰处, 不见长安见尘雾。
唯将旧物表深情, 钿合金钗寄将去。
钗留一股合一扇, 钗擘黄金合分钿;
但教心似金钿坚, 天上人间会相见。
临别殷勤重寄词, 词中有誓两心知。
七月七日长生殿, 夜半无人私语时。
在天愿作比翼鸟, 在地愿为连理枝。
天长地久有时尽, 此恨绵绵无绝期。

A SONG OF UNENDING SORROW
Bai Juyi China's Emperor, craving beauty that might shake an empire,
Was on the throne for many years, searching, never finding,
Till a little child of the Yang clan, hardly even grown,
Bred in an inner chamber, with no one knowing her,
But with graces granted by heaven and not to be concealed,
At last one day was chosen for the imperial household.
If she but turned her head and smiled, there were cast a hundred spells,
And the powder and paint of the Six Palaces faded into nothing....
It was early spring. They bathed her in the FlowerPure Pool,
Which warmed and smoothed the creamy-tinted crystal of her skin,
And, because of her languor, a maid was lifting her
When first the Emperor noticed her‍ and chose her for his bride.
The cloud of her hair, petal of her cheek, gold ripples of her crown when she moved,
Were sheltered on spring evenings by warm hibiscus curtains;
But nights of spring were short and the sun arose too soon,
And the Emperor, from that time forth, forsook his early hearings
And lavished all his time on her with feasts and revelry,
His mistress of the spring, his despot of the night.
There were other ladies in his court, three thousand of rare beauty,
But his favours to three thousand were concentered in one body.
By the time she was dressed in her Golden Chamber, it would be almost evening;
And when tables were cleared in the Tower of Jade, she would loiter, slow with wine.
Her sisters and her brothers all were given titles;
And, because she so illumined and glorified her clan,
She brought to every father, every mother through the empire,
Happiness when a girl was born rather than a boy.
...High rose Li Palace, entering blue clouds,
And far and wide the breezes carried magical notes
Of soft song and slow dance, of string and bamboo music.
The Emperor's eyes could never gaze on her enough-
Till war-drums, booming from Yuyang, shocked the whole earth
And broke the tunes of The Rainbow Skirt and the Feathered Coat.
The Forbidden City, the nine-tiered palace, loomed in the dust
From thousands of horses and chariots headed southwest.
The imperial flag opened the way, now moving and now pausing- -
But thirty miles from the capital, beyond the western gate,
The men of the army stopped, not one of them would stir
Till under their horses' hoofs they might trample those moth- eyebrows....
Flowery hairpins fell to the ground, no one picked them up,
And a green and white jade hair-tassel and a yellowgold hair- bird.
The Emperor could not save her, he could only cover his face.
And later when he turned to look, the place of blood and tears
Was hidden in a yellow dust blown by a cold wind....
At the cleft of the Dagger-Tower Trail they crisscrossed through a cloud-line
Under Omei Mountain. The last few came.
Flags and banners lost their colour in the fading sunlight....
But as waters of Shu are always green and its mountains always blue,
So changeless was His Majesty's love and deeper than the days.
He stared at the desolate moon from his temporary palace.
He heard bell-notes in the evening rain, cutting at his breast.
And when heaven and earth resumed their round and the dragon car faced home,
The Emperor clung to the spot and would not turn away
From the soil along the Mawei slope, under which was buried
That memory, that anguish. Where was her jade-white face?
Ruler and lords, when eyes would meet, wept upon their coats
As they rode, with loose rein, slowly eastward, back to the capital....
The pools, the gardens, the palace, all were just as before,
The Lake Taiye hibiscus, the Weiyang Palace willows;
But a petal was like her face and a willow-leaf her eyebrow --
And what could he do but cry whenever he looked at them?
...Peach-trees and plum-trees blossomed, in the winds of spring;
Lakka-foliage fell to the ground, after autumn rains;
The Western and Southern Palaces were littered with late grasses,
And the steps were mounded with red leaves that no one swept away.
Her Pear-Garden Players became white-haired
And the eunuchs thin-eyebrowed in her Court of PepperTrees;
Over the throne flew fire-flies, while he brooded in the twilight.
He would lengthen the lamp-wick to its end and still could never sleep.
Bell and drum would slowly toll the dragging nighthours
And the River of Stars grow sharp in the sky, just before dawn,
And the porcelain mandarin-ducks on the roof grow thick with morning frost
And his covers of kingfisher-blue feel lonelier and colder
With the distance between life and death year after year;
And yet no beloved spirit ever visited his dreams....
At Lingqiong lived a Taoist priest who was a guest of heaven,
Able to summon spirits by his concentrated mind.
And people were so moved by the Emperor's constant brooding
That they besought the Taoist priest to see if he could find her.
He opened his way in space and clove the ether like lightning,
Up to heaven, under the earth, looking everywhere.
Above, he searched the Green Void, below, the Yellow Spring;
But he failed, in either place, to find the one he looked for.
And then he heard accounts of an enchanted isle at sea,
A part of the intangible and incorporeal world,
With pavilions and fine towers in the five-coloured air,
And of exquisite immortals moving to and fro,
And of one among them-whom they called The Ever True-
With a face of snow and flowers resembling hers he sought.
So he went to the West Hall's gate of gold and knocked at the jasper door
And asked a girl, called Morsel-of-Jade, to tell The Doubly- Perfect.
And the lady, at news of an envoy from the Emperor of China,
Was startled out of dreams in her nine-flowered, canopy.
She pushed aside her pillow, dressed, shook away sleep,
And opened the pearly shade and then the silver screen.
Her cloudy hair-dress hung on one side because of her great haste,
And her flower-cap was loose when she came along the terrace,While a light wind filled her cloak and fluttered with her motion
As though she danced The Rainbow Skirt and the Feathered Coat.
And the tear-drops drifting down her sad white face
Were like a rain in spring on the blossom of the pear.
But love glowed deep within her eyes when she bade him thank her liege,
Whose form and voice had been strange to her ever since their parting --
Since happiness had ended at the Court of the Bright Sun,
And moons and dawns had become long in Fairy-Mountain Palace.
But when she turned her face and looked down toward the earth
And tried to see the capital, there were only fog and dust.
So she took out, with emotion, the pledges he had given
And, through his envoy, sent him back a shell box and gold hairpin,
But kept one branch of the hairpin and one side of the box,
Breaking the gold of the hairpin, breaking the shell of the box;
"Our souls belong together," she said, " like this gold and this shell --
Somewhere, sometime, on earth or in heaven, we shall surely
And she sent him, by his messenger, a sentence reminding him
Of vows which had been known only to their two hearts:
"On the seventh day of the Seventh-month, in the Palace of Long Life,
We told each other secretly in the quiet midnight world
That we wished to fly in heaven, two birds with the wings of one,And to grow together on the earth, two branches of one tree."
Earth endures, heaven endures; some time both shall end,
While this unending sorrow goes on and on for ever.

渔翁 (AN OLD FISHERMAN )

渔翁
柳宗元
渔翁夜傍西岩宿, 晓汲清湘燃楚烛。
烟销日出不见人, 欸乃一声山水绿。
回看天际下中流, 岩上无心云相逐。
AN OLD FISHERMAN
Liu Zongyuan
An old fisherman spent the night here, under the western cliff;
He dipped up water from the pure Hsiang and made a bamboo fire;
And then, at sunrise, he went his way through the cloven mist,
With only the creak of his paddle left, in the greenness of mountain and river.
...I turn and see the waves moving as from heaven,
And clouds above the cliffs coming idly, one by one.

2009年3月2日星期一

石鼓歌 A POEM ON THE STONE DRUMS

石鼓歌
韩愈
张生手持石鼓文, 劝我识作石鼓歌。
少陵无人谪仙死, 才薄将奈石鼓何?
周纲淩迟四海沸, 宣王愤起挥天戈;
大开明堂受朝贺, 诸侯剑佩鸣相磨。
搜于岐阳骋雄俊, 万里禽兽皆遮罗。
镌功勒成告万世, 凿石作鼓隳嵯峨。
从臣才艺咸第一, 拣选撰刻留山阿。
雨淋日炙野火燎, 鬼物守护烦撝呵。
公从何处得纸本? 毫发尽备无差讹。
辞严义密读难晓, 字体不类隶与蝌。
年深岂免有缺画? 快剑砍断生蛟鼍。
鸾翔凤翥众仙下, 珊瑚碧树交枝柯。
金绳铁索锁钮壮, 古鼎跃水龙腾梭。
陋儒编诗不收入, 二雅褊迫无委蛇。
孔子西行不到秦, 掎摭星宿遗羲娥。
嗟予好古生苦晚, 对此涕泪双滂沱。
忆昔初蒙博士徵, 其年始改称元和。
故人从军在右辅, 为我度量掘臼科。
濯冠沐浴告祭酒, 如此至宝存岂多?
毡包席裹可立致, 十鼓祇载数骆驼。
荐诸太庙比郜鼎, 光价岂止百倍过。
圣恩若许留太学, 诸生讲解得切磋。
观经鸿都尚填咽, 坐见举国来奔波。
剜苔剔藓露节角, 安置妥帖平不颇。
大厦深檐与盖覆, 经历久远期无佗。
中朝大官老于事, 讵肯感激徒媕婀?
牧童敲火牛砺角, 谁复著手为摩挲?
日销月铄就埋没, 六年西顾空吟哦。
羲之俗书趁姿媚, 数纸尚可博白鹅。
继周八代争战罢, 无人收拾理则那。
方今太平日无事, 柄任儒术崇丘轲。
安能以此上论列? 愿借辩口如悬河。
石鼓之歌止于此, 呜呼吾意其蹉跎。

A POEM ON THE STONE DRUMS
Han Yu
Chang handed me this tracing, from the stone drums,
Beseeching me to write a poem on the stone drums.
Du Fu has gone. Li Bai is dead.
What can my poor talent do for the stone drums?
...When the Zhou power waned and China was bubbling,
Emperor Xuan, up in wrath, waved his holy spear:
And opened his Great Audience, receiving all the tributes
Of kings and lords who came to him with a tune of clanging weapons.
They held a hunt in Qiyang and proved their marksmanship:
Fallen birds and animals were strewn three thousand miles.
And the exploit was recorded, to inform new generations....
Cut out of jutting cliffs, these drums made of stone-
On which poets and artisans, all of the first order,
Had indited and chiselled-were set in the deep mountains
To be washed by rain, baked by sun, burned by wildfire,
Eyed by evil spirits; and protected by the gods....
Where can he have found the tracing on this paper?
--True to the original, not altered by a hair,
The meaning deep, the phrases cryptic, difficult to read.
And the style of the characters neither square nor tadpole.
Time has not yet vanquished the beauty of these letters --
Looking like sharp daggers that pierce live crocodiles,
Like phoenix-mates dancing, like angels hovering down,
Like trees of jade and coral with interlocking branches,
Like golden cord and iron chain tied together tight,
Like incense-tripods flung in the sea, like dragons mounting heaven.
Historians, gathering ancient poems, forgot to gather these,
To make the two Books of Musical Song more colourful and striking;
Confucius journeyed in the west, but not to the Qin Kingdom,
He chose our planet and our stars but missed the sun and moon‍
I who am fond of antiquity, was born too late
And, thinking of these wonderful things, cannot hold back my tears....
I remember, when I was awarded my highest degree,
During the first year of Yuanho,
How a friend of mine, then at the western camp,
Offered to assist me in removing these old relics.
I bathed and changed, then made my plea to the college president
And urged on him the rareness of these most precious things.
They could be wrapped in rugs, be packed and sent in boxes
And carried on only a few camels: ten stone drumsTo grace the
Imperial Temple like the Incense-Pot of Gao --
Or their lustre and their value would increase a hundredfold,
If the monarch would present them to the university,
Where students could study them and doubtless decipher them,
And multitudes, attracted to the capital of culture
Prom all corners of the Empire, would be quick to gather.
We could scour the moss, pick out the dirt, restore the original surface,
And lodge them in a fitting and secure place for ever,
Covered by a massive building with wide eaves
Where nothing more might happen to them as it had before.
...But government officials grow fixed in their ways
And never will initiate beyond old precedent;
So herd- boys strike the drums for fire, cows polish horns on them,
With no one to handle them reverentially.
Still ageing and decaying, soon they may be effaced.
Six years I have sighed for them, chanting toward the west....
The familiar script of Wang Xizhi, beautiful though it was,
Could be had, several pages, just for a few white geese,
But now, eight dynasties after the Zhou, and all the wars over,
Why should there be nobody caring for these drums?
The Empire is at peace, the government free.
Poets again are honoured and Confucians and Mencians....
Oh, how may this petition be carried to the throne?
It needs indeed an eloquent flow, like a cataract-
But, alas, my voice has broken, in my song of the stone drums,
To a sound of supplication choked with its own tears.