Book 2 114 the Poetry of Meng Haoran Heptametric Old-Style Verse 115
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Book 2 114 The Poetry of Meng Haoran Heptametric Old-Style Verse 115 七言古體詩 Heptametric Old-Style Verse 2.1 2.1 1 夜歸鹿門歌 Song on Returning at Night to Deer Gate The sounding bell from a mountain temple– day now is darkling; 山寺鳴鐘晝已昏 At the head of Fish-weir Crossing– a clamor of quarrelsome crossers. 2 The others follow the sandy shore toward the river village, 漁梁渡頭爭渡喧 4 I for my part board a skiff, going back to Deer Gate. 人隨沙岸向江村 Deer Gate’s moon glows, disclosing hazy trees, 4 余亦乘舟歸鹿門 As soon I arrive at Lord Pang’s place of hidden retreat.3 Cliffside door and pinetree path, for long still and silent: 8 Here, only a secluded one, who comes and goes on his own. 鹿門月照開煙樹 忽到龐公棲隱處 巖扉松徑長寂寥 8 惟有幽人自來去 1 Deer Gate Mountain, about twelve miles south of Xiangyang, overlooking the Han River to its west. 2 Fish-weir Isle was amidst the Han, to the east of Mount Xian (itself to the north of Deer Gate Mountain). 3 The famous local recluse of the early third century (see 1.9, note 2). Open Access. © 2021 Paul W. Kroll, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110734690-002 114 The Poetry of Meng Haoran Heptametric Old-Style Verse 115 七言古體詩 Heptametric Old-Style Verse 2.1 2.1 1 夜歸鹿門歌 Song on Returning at Night to Deer Gate The sounding bell from a mountain temple– day now is darkling; 山寺鳴鐘晝已昏 At the head of Fish-weir Crossing– a clamor of quarrelsome crossers. 2 The others follow the sandy shore toward the river village, 漁梁渡頭爭渡喧 4 I for my part board a skiff, going back to Deer Gate. 人隨沙岸向江村 Deer Gate’s moon glows, disclosing hazy trees, 4 余亦乘舟歸鹿門 As soon I arrive at Lord Pang’s place of hidden retreat.3 Cliffside door and pinetree path, for long still and silent: 8 Here, only a secluded one, who comes and goes on his own. 鹿門月照開煙樹 忽到龐公棲隱處 巖扉松徑長寂寥 8 惟有幽人自來去 1 Deer Gate Mountain, about twelve miles south of Xiangyang, overlooking the Han River to its west. 2 Fish-weir Isle was amidst the Han, to the east of Mount Xian (itself to the north of Deer Gate Mountain). 3 The famous local recluse of the early third century (see 1.9, note 2). Open Access. © 2021 Paul W. Kroll, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110734690-002 116 The Poetry of Meng Haoran Heptametric Old-Style Verse 117 2.2 2.2 和盧明府送鄭十三還京兼寄之 Matching Magistrate Lu’s Poem“Seeing Off Zheng (Thirteen) Return- ing to the Capital”; Sent along with It 昔時風景登臨地 In times past when the air was brilliant, we’d climb high and look down on the land; 今日衣冠送別筵 Today wearing the raiment of office, you’re seen off from parting mats. 閑臥自傾彭澤酒 Reclining at ease, we freely tipple the wine of Pengze,1 4 As thoughts turn homeward, ever gazing toward the white-cloud sky. 4 思歸長望白雲天 A“single leaf at Dongting” alerts one of autumn’s onset, And I sigh for the“hugely useless,” stuck on an island in the river. 2 洞庭一葉驚秋早 I send these words to a man of authority at the imperial court: 濩落空嗟滯江島 8 What time will we meet again on the streets of Chang’an? 寄語朝廷當世人 8 何時重見長安道 1 Tao Qian (372–426) said he briefly took a position as magistrate of Pengze district only to have the resources that would keep him in wine. 2 An old saying had it that when a single leaf falls at Lake Dongting, you know of autumn’s imminent arrival. The Zhuangzi tells of a man given a large gourd who, finding it unwieldy and“hugely useless,” simply smashes it, unaware of how it might be used in an uncommon way. Meng is suggesting that he is like the gourd, if only someone (i.e., Zheng) will recognize his abilities, but instead he feels, as we would say,“up the creek without a paddle.” 116 The Poetry of Meng Haoran Heptametric Old-Style Verse 117 2.2 2.2 和盧明府送鄭十三還京兼寄之 Matching Magistrate Lu’s Poem“Seeing Off Zheng (Thirteen) Return- ing to the Capital”; Sent along with It 昔時風景登臨地 In times past when the air was brilliant, we’d climb high and look down on the land; 今日衣冠送別筵 Today wearing the raiment of office, you’re seen off from parting mats. 閑臥自傾彭澤酒 Reclining at ease, we freely tipple the wine of Pengze,1 4 As thoughts turn homeward, ever gazing toward the white-cloud sky. 4 思歸長望白雲天 A“single leaf at Dongting” alerts one of autumn’s onset, And I sigh for the“hugely useless,” stuck on an island in the river. 2 洞庭一葉驚秋早 I send these words to a man of authority at the imperial court: 濩落空嗟滯江島 8 What time will we meet again on the streets of Chang’an? 寄語朝廷當世人 8 何時重見長安道 1 Tao Qian (372–426) said he briefly took a position as magistrate of Pengze district only to have the resources that would keep him in wine. 2 An old saying had it that when a single leaf falls at Lake Dongting, you know of autumn’s imminent arrival. The Zhuangzi tells of a man given a large gourd who, finding it unwieldy and“hugely useless,” simply smashes it, unaware of how it might be used in an uncommon way. Meng is suggesting that he is like the gourd, if only someone (i.e., Zheng) will recognize his abilities, but instead he feels, as we would say,“up the creek without a paddle.” 118 The Poetry of Meng Haoran Heptametric Old-Style Verse 119 2.3 2.3 送王七尉松滋得陽臺雲 Seeing Off Wang (Seven) to be Constable of Songzi; I Drew the Tag “Clouds of the Sunlit Terrace”1 君不見巫山神女作行雲 Sir, don’t you see,2 the divine maiden of Mount Wu as the shifting clouds? Blurred pink against piled bright-blue, a hazy aura at daybreak. 霏紅沓翠曉氛氳 Tempting and enticing she glided into the dream of King Xiang, 嬋娟流入襄王夢 4 Too suddenly soon again to ensue as a complement of fine rain. 4 倏忽還隨零雨分 In the empty sky airborne thither and once more airborne hither, “Morning upon morning, sunset upon sunset, below the Sunlit Terrace.” I am sad that you, sir, from now shall be a transcendent constable, 空中飛去復飛來 8 Readily to go off with the moving clouds and never to come back.3 朝朝暮暮下陽臺 愁君此去為仙尉 8 便逐行雲去不迴 1 A constable was one of the four centrally-appointed officials of a district, respon- sible for local police and military matters. Songzi district was in the extreme south of Hubei, on the southern shore of the Jiang. The phrasing“I Get…” indicates that the poem was composed at a group gathering, where those in attendance were to compose poems on individual themes and rhymes that were drawn by chance.“Cloud of the Sunlit Terrace” refers to the story of King Xiang of Chu in the Warring States period who, when on the terrace below Mount Wu with the court poet Song Yu宋玉, was told of an encounter that an earlier king had there with the goddess of Mount Wu for a daytime tryst, after which she said,“I reside on the sunlit side of Mount Wu, in a nook of the high hills; in the morning I am the shifting clouds, at sunset the shifting rain– morning upon morning, sunset upon sunset, below the Sunlit Terrace.” Two famous poems about this are attributed to Song Yu. In the most common version of this story the goddess says that in the morning she is the“dawn clouds,” but Meng’s open- ing line shows he knew the version quoted earlier. 2 A traditional extrametrical opening to certain poems of a narrative or discursive nature. 3 The term“transcendent constable” refers to Mei Fu梅福 of the early first century , who once served as constable in Nanchang南昌 district, but, when Wang Mang usurped the Han throne, left his wife and children and went off to Kuaiji where he was rumored to have become a transcendent. Meng flatters Wang by identifying him with Mei Fu and suggesting that upon departing he is accompa- nying the goddess of Mount Wu. 118 The Poetry of Meng Haoran Heptametric Old-Style Verse 119 2.3 2.3 送王七尉松滋得陽臺雲 Seeing Off Wang (Seven) to be Constable of Songzi; I Drew the Tag “Clouds of the Sunlit Terrace”1 君不見巫山神女作行雲 Sir, don’t you see,2 the divine maiden of Mount Wu as the shifting clouds? Blurred pink against piled bright-blue, a hazy aura at daybreak. 霏紅沓翠曉氛氳 Tempting and enticing she glided into the dream of King Xiang, 嬋娟流入襄王夢 4 Too suddenly soon again to ensue as a complement of fine rain. 4 倏忽還隨零雨分 In the empty sky airborne thither and once more airborne hither, “Morning upon morning, sunset upon sunset, below the Sunlit Terrace.” I am sad that you, sir, from now shall be a transcendent constable, 空中飛去復飛來 8 Readily to go off with the moving clouds and never to come back.3 朝朝暮暮下陽臺 愁君此去為仙尉 8 便逐行雲去不迴 1 A constable was one of the four centrally-appointed officials of a district, respon- sible for local police and military matters. Songzi district was in the extreme south of Hubei, on the southern shore of the Jiang. The phrasing“I Get…” indicates that the poem was composed at a group gathering, where those in attendance were to compose poems on individual themes and rhymes that were drawn by chance.“Cloud of the Sunlit Terrace” refers to the story of King Xiang of Chu in the Warring States period who, when on the terrace below Mount Wu with the court poet Song Yu宋玉, was told of an encounter that an earlier king had there with the goddess of Mount Wu for a daytime tryst, after which she said,“I reside on the sunlit side of Mount Wu, in a nook of the high hills; in the morning I am the shifting clouds, at sunset the shifting rain– morning upon morning, sunset upon sunset, below the Sunlit Terrace.” Two famous poems about this are attributed to Song Yu.