8: Look on Sacred Peaks, Du Fu

Now how about Old Daizong

Qi and Lu are yet green here

Great Transformations cherish his aspect

His Yin and Yang cut morning from evening

The hot springs in his breast birth strata of cloud

His hard glare receives returning birds

Gathering facing his final peak

Many mountains are made small below

4: Fourth Poem of Encountering, by Zhang Jiuling

A few changes to format here; I'll discuss them tomorrow. For now, enjoy my meager attempt at our last Zhang Jiuling poem for a little while!

004张九龄:感遇四首之四

江南有丹橘，經冬猶綠林。
豈伊地氣暖，自有歲寒心。
可以薦嘉客，奈何阻重深。
運命唯所遇，循環不可尋。
徒言樹桃李，此木豈無陰。

Zhang Jiuling: Four Poems of Encountering, Number Four

The Southlands have a red tangerine, that
endures the winter in still-green groves

In a realm of such mild weather
it has a heart to bear the cold.

You might give it to noble guests;
Why is it secluded so deep?

Fate and everything it meets: a
wheel whose end we cannot seek.

Someone says: tree, peaches, plums,
how can this wood not have shadows?


Jiāngnán yǒu dān jú, jīng dòng yóu lù lín.
River south has red tangerine, endure winter still green forest
qǐ yí dì qì nuǎn, zǐ yǒu suì hán xīn
how this place air warm, self have severe cold heart
kě yǐ jiàn jiā kè, nài hé zǔ zhòng shēn!
may be present good guest, nevertheless how kept heavy deep
yūn mìng wéi suǒ yù, xún huán bù kě xún.
luck / life (fate) think so encounter, cycle not can search
tú yán shù táo lǐ, cǐ mù qǐ wú yīn?
disciple say tree peaches plums, this wood how could not (shade, yin)?

2: Parallelism

I'll start with something I vaguely understand about this poem, and leave the points of my confusion for later in the week.

(Apropos of nothing, "The Points of My Confusion", or possibly "The Points of His Confusion" sounds like the title for some kind of rich caramel society novel, best read on stormy day with tea and honey.)

The first couplet of this poem is an accessible example of how Chinese poetry uses parallelism:

兰叶春葳蕤,桂华秋皎洁。

Each character or phrase in the first line of this couplet corresponds with a character or phrase in the second line. This may be easier to visualize if the lines are presented vertically:

兰叶春葳蕤
桂华秋皎洁

The dictionary reads these lines as:

orchid leaf spring (abundant, luxurious)
cassia flower autumn (clear, pure)

I enclose the translations of 葳蕤 and 皎洁 in parentheses because each of these two pairs of characters forms a set phrase with the meanings I've bracketed above. These two lines have a strict form: (plant name) (part of plant) (season) (adjectival double-phrase). We could continue to riff on this phrase for subsequent lines if we wanted:

Holly berries in winter: red, round.
Dandelion seeds in summer: floating free.

Such parallelism is more than just a neat trick; in many poems it's key to comprehending a subtle line. When translating poem #1, I was stymied by the couplet 美服患人指,高明逼神恶 (měifù huàn rén zhǐ, gāo míng bī shén wù) which reads in the dictionary: beautiful clothes worry men point, high shine meet god hate. I was stymied at this point, but Matt pointed out that I should focus on the parallelism in this couplet, where 患 huàn and 逼 bī work as verbs, měifù (beautiful clothes) and gāo míng (high and shining, sort of like high and mighty) both refer to a kind of elevated or haughty condition, and rén zhǐ (people pointing) and shén wù (god hate) are situations to avoid.

I wasn't happy with the parallelism in my English translation of that line ("Beautifully clothed, beware pointing fingers; greatness and glory bring spirits' wrath"); in the end it felt like a poorer representation of the Chinese than was the raw dictionary translation. I tried to be more strict in communicating the parallel here:

Orchid leaves in spring: abundant, luxurious; cinnamon flowers in fall: bright, pure.

I think these two lines hold together, but I'm cautious about falling into the trap of writing lines so similar to the Chinese that they don't work in English. Thoughts?

2: Zhang Jiuling - Four Poems of Encountering, No. 2

Matt's madcap rebellion regardless, I intend to continue with the poems in Hengtang Hermit Edition order. I don't know enough Tang poetry to know which poems out of the 300 I really like; one of my minor goals with this project is to learn more about Tang dynasty poetics. I have to move in some order, so I might as well proceed in the traditional one, which will provide me with classics and hidden gems in equal measure.

002张九龄:感遇四首之二

兰叶春葳蕤,桂华秋皎洁。
欣欣此生意,自尔为佳节。
谁知林栖者,闻风坐相悦。
草木有本心,何求美人折?

lán yè chūn wēiruí, guì huā qiū jiǎojié
orchid leave spring abundant luxurious, cassia flower autumn clear pure

xīnxīn cǐ shēng yì, zǐ ér wèi jiā jié
happy happy this life meaning, I you become good festival

shéi zhī lín xì zhě, wēn fēng zuò xiāng yuè
who know forest lonley (type of person), hear\smell wind & so mutual joy

cǎo mù yǒu běn xīn, hé qiǔ měi rén zhé?
grass wood have root heart, why beg beauty person return?

Zhang Jiuling, Four Poems of Encountering, No. 2

Orchid leaves in spring: abundant, luxurious; cinnamon flowers in fall: bright, pure.
Happy, happy this life; spring and fall are joyous revels.
Who knows the lonely forest, hears the wind and so becomes like breeze.
Grass and wood have a rooted heart; why return to seek honor among men?

Even without Kang Laoshi to excoriate me I can see a handful of issues with this translation, which I'll start to bring up tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy your evening!