Today’s poem is the first in a series of 10 词 ci lyrics by the Song poet 欧阳修 Ouyang Xiu. The poems in this series have no title other than 采桑子: “[to the tune of] The Mulberry-Picking Boy.” I’ll be posting one poem per day.
欧阳修: 采桑子 (1)
轻舟短棹西湖好
绿水逶迤
芳草长堤
隐隐笙歌处处随
无风水面琉璃滑
不觉船移
微动涟漪
惊起沙禽掠岸飞
Ouyang Xiu: “To the tune of ‘The Mulberry-Picking Boy’”
(1)
A [...]
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Monthly Archives November 2004
ouyang xiu: first in a series
du mu: “tomb-sweeping day”
Today’s poem is a nice short one: “Qingming,” or “Tomb-Sweeping day,” by late Tang Dynasty poet Du Mu (803 - 852).
The title refers to the traditional Qingming holiday, on which people would - and still do - go to tend the tombs of their ancestors.
A longer poem tomorrow, by Ouyang Xiu. Happy Thanksgiving to US [...]
du fu: the fine lady
Today’s translation is basically a first draft. It’s not poetic, not within any kind of metrical constraints, and really not all that good. Ah well - there’s a long weekend coming up, and I’ll have more time to not suck then.
杜甫:佳人
绝代有佳人,幽居在空谷。
自云良家子,零落依草木。
关中昔丧乱,兄弟遭杀戮。
官高何足论,不得收骨肉。
世情恶衰歇,万事随转烛。
夫婿轻薄儿,新人美如玉。
合昏尚知时,鸳鸯不独宿。
但见新人笑,那闻旧人哭!
在山泉水清,出山泉水浊。
侍婢卖珠回,牵萝补茅屋。
摘花不插发,采柏动盈掬。
天寒翠袖薄,日暮倚修竹。
Du Fu: The Fine Lady
Unmatched in beauty, there is a fine lady *
Who lives secluded [...]
bai juyi: bemoaning my old age (1)
Today’s poem is going up late because of a couple of problems I had with the translation. These problems were exacerbated by the fact that it’s apparently pretty a obscure poem: I happened upon it in my copy of 白居易集 The Collected Works of Bai Juyi, which has no explanatory annotations, and searches online and [...]
li bai: “drinking alone in the moonlight”
UPDATE - The poem for today, the first of Bai Juyi’s “Bemoaning My Old Age: Three Poems” (叹老三首), will be up later this afternoon; my translation is done, but I need to check one of the lines. In the meantime, look at the comments for this poem, where Oli and Kun quite rightly point out [...]
li bai: “bring in the wine!”
Today’s poem, “Bring in the Wine!” by famous Tang drunkard and poet Li Bai, was a real bitch to translate.
For one thing, it’s written in an irregular form with varying line-lengths and a looser rhyme scheme than usual. For another, some of the vocabulary strikes me as weird - specifically, the repeated use of 莫 [...]
poem of the day
I haven’t had much at all to write about lately, and so rather than let this space die, I’ve decided to focus, until I have an interesting life again, on posting translations.
Translating longer stuff tends to bog me down, even when I really like whatever it is that I’m translating. (See, for example, the first [...]