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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Translations —
Category Archives: Translations
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 [...]
my peugeot
(This entry is adapted and rewritten from a Chinese post of mine on 出语不俗, a new blog by students of Chinese as a foreign language.)
Let me make a recommendation here: if you’re reading this late at night, and you have a bicycle, turn off the computer, go outside, get on your bike, and ride. Biking [...]
damn the Man
Lately I’ve become fascinated with classical Chinese protest poetry.
There’s a great book out called 中国文人的非正常死亡 (”The Unnatural Deaths of Chinese Literati”) which follows the cases of Chinese writers, poets, and historians who pissed off the wrong eunuch and subsequently found themselves exiled, castrated, tortured, or minus a head.
It starts with the story of Sima Qian [...]
‘fuck xiangsheng,’ and other musings
I’ve resumed my Chinese blog, and plan to do a non-halfassed job of it this time, especially since I’ll be in need of ways to practice my Chinese once I’m back in the States, and since my composition is probably the weakest part of my Chinese. Anyway, there are a couple of new pieces up [...]