16 replies to this topic

[Tang Scholar]

The poem proposed for this week is by Han Shan (寒山), from the Tang dynasty (dates uncertain).
Han Shan’s poems are usually untitled.

Traditional characters:

出生三十年，當游千萬裡。
行江青草合，入塞紅塵起。
煉藥空求仙，讀書兼詠史。
今日歸寒山，枕流兼洗耳。

Simplified characters:

出生三十年，当游千万里。
行江青草合，入塞红尘起。
炼药空求仙，读书兼咏史。
今日归寒山，枕流兼洗耳。

Pinyin:

chūshēng sānshí nián ，dāng yóu qiānwàn lǐ 。
háng Jiāngqīng cǎo gě ，rù sāi hóng chén qǐ 。
liàn yào kōng qiú xiān ，dúshū jiān yǒng shǐ 。
jīnrì guī hán shān ，zhěn liú jiān xǐ ěr 。

As for the poem to be proposed at the start of next week, volunteers are encouraged.

[Liu]

I'll be there on Monday !

[Tang Scholar]

I'll be there on Monday !

¡Great, Liu! Thanks

[Tang Scholar]

My English version of the poem:

At thirty, having traveled thousands, thousands of miles,
through rivers and green grass, and red dust raising places,
having sought unsuccessfully potions of inmortality,
having studied in books and sung history tales,
I am today returning again to the Cold Mountain,
the head into the stream and ears washed.

En español:

A los treinta, después de viajes de mil millas,
por prados verdes, ríos, yermos de polvo rojo,
buscando en vano pócimas que dieran vida eterna,
tras estudiar en libros y cantares de historias,
hoy vuelvo una vez más a la Montaña Fría,
a holgar en el arrollo, bien limpios los oídos.

[chalimacos]

I've read your workshop for a while. Here is my first contribution:


On this day I complete my thirty year.
Long have I traveled, long have I drifted,
Watched not the grass from ashore but in the river.
This way I have come to know human affairs,
I have mixed medicines for a shot at immortality,
I have read all the books and sang the deeds of many a hero.
Today I made my way back to Cold Mountain,
Rested by the stream and let the sound wash it all away.

[Tang Scholar]

I've read your workshop for a while. Here is my first contribution:


On this day I complete my thirty year.
Long have I traveled, long have I drifted,
Watched not the grass from ashore but in the river.
This way I have come to know human affairs,
I have mixed medicines for a shot at immortality,
I have read all the books and sang the deeds of many a hero.
Today I made my way back to Cold Mountain,
Rested by the stream and let the sound wash it all away.

Excellent, Chalimacos! Welcome to the workshop!

[Yizheng]

Hello all,
Tang scholar, it's good you got the workshop going again. I hope lots of people will join in and give it a try. Here's my translation of this week's one.


出生三十年，当游千万里。
行江青草合，入塞红尘起。
炼药空求仙，读书兼咏史。
今日归寒山，枕流兼洗耳。

Now thirty years in this world,
I’ve wandered miles by the thousands.
Along the rivers thick green-grass rimmed,
Through the red dust whirl beyond the outposts.
I sought to be immortal, brewed potions all in vain,
And books I read, chronicles I chanted.
Today, to the cold mountain I return,
To wash my ears and rest my head in the stream.

[fcharton]

Mine, will be back with a french version in a while...

出生三十年，当游千万里。
行江青草合，入塞红尘起。
炼药空求仙，读书兼咏史。
今日归寒山，枕流兼洗耳。

Born for thirty years, I have travelled far
Green grass by the River, red dust on the borders
Potions brewed in vain, books read, stories learnt
Back in Cold mountain, in rest wash my ears.

I have a question... Apparently, everyone is seeing a brook, or a stream in the last verse... I'm not sure it is so... My word by word says : pillow flows both wash ears. Interpretations? ideas? speak out people !

Francois

Edited by fcharton, 04 April 2009 - 12:43 PM.

[Yizheng]

I do not know that it has to be literally a brook or stream. I did not actually see it in my head as a physical stream. I see it as a abstract sort of flow or current. To be honest, I don't know anything really about him and his cold mountain. But in my mind it could be all a metaphor of some sort. A flow or current that is physically washing his years and miles and vain strivings from him? Cleaning him out of the ambitions of life and the world, and resting him after his wanderings? Or is it just a metaphorical image?

[fcharton]

Into French...

出生三十年，当游千万里。
行江青草合，入塞红尘起。
炼药空求仙，读书兼咏史。
今日归寒山，枕流兼洗耳。

Né depuis trente ans, j'ai vu du pays
Fleuve aux rives vertes, sable des confins
Livres, histoires lus, philtres bus en vain
Je rentre au mont Froid, baigner mon esprit

Edited by fcharton, 04 April 2009 - 01:54 PM.

[Tang Scholar]

Good to see you here again, Yizheng and Fcharton. Now we have also a newcomer, Chalimacos. And the perspective of a new poem for the next week, proposed by Liu. The workshop is on its wheels again!

Truly, the last verse is the most baffling for me. There seems to be the idea of flow, and also that of pillow, and washed ears also. Honestly, I did what I could. Or rather, here, my version is a shot into darkness.

[manjuniyalma]

Dear friends, I apologize for leaving this workshop for a long while. I have encountered some difficulties handling my work and study in the past three months.
It is great to see CHF coming back again and poetry translation workshop getting back to business.
CHF is highly addictive and the weekly poetry translation workshop is especially so.
I won't be able to participate every week, but I will submit my translation whenever I get time. As always, here are my literal translations in English and Manchu.

English version:
In the thirty years since my birth
I must have travelled tens of thousands li
I journeyed Yangzi River in the season when the green grasses joined together
I entered the border in the red dust that rose to the sky
I have tried to make the elixir of life and sought for immortals in vain,
I have read books and intoned history
Today back to Cold Mountain,
I will rest my head on the flowing water to rinse the world's noises out of my ear.

Manchu version:


Seeing the question in your posts, I feel obliged to explain a little bit about 枕流兼洗耳 in the last line.
枕流兼洗耳 is derived from the expression 枕流漱石, which in turn is an altered form of 枕石漱流.

枕石漱流 literally means to rest one's head on a rock and to wash one's mouth with brook water. It refers to living a hermit life.

There is an interesting anecdote about how 枕石漱流 became 枕流漱石:

南朝宋刘义庆《世说新语•排调》:"孙子荆年少时欲隐，语王武子当枕石漱流，误曰漱石枕流。王曰:'流可枕石可漱乎?'孙曰:'所以枕流，欲洗其耳;所以漱石，欲砺其齿。'"后以喻隐居山林。
When Sun Zijing was young, he wanted to become a hermit. He told Wang Wuzi about this . He was supposed to say that he would like to rest his head on a rock and rinse his mouth with spring water. But by mistake, he said he would wash his mouth with rocks and rest head on flowing water. Wang Wuzi asked, "How can you rest your head on flowing water and wash your mouth with rocks?" Su Zijing replied, "The reason why I would rest my head on the flowing water is to wash my ears; and the reason why I would wash my mouth with rocks is to hone my teeth." Later this expression became the metaphor of living a hermit life in the mountain or in the woods.

Though this is an old Chinese expression, ironically I learned it in my Japanese class, from the name of 夏目漱石 Natsume Souseki, a famous Japanese writer in Meiji era.

Edited by manjuniyalma, 07 April 2009 - 02:05 AM.

[chalimacos]

Wenlin gives 紅塵 (red dust) as an expression for the the "world of mortals; human society". The literal "I entered the border in the red dust" could stand for his previous life of mixing with worldly matters before adopting the life of hermit in that last line so revealingly explained by manjuniyalma.

[Tang Scholar]

Dear friends, I apologize for leaving this workshop for a long while. I have encountered some difficulties handling my work and study in the past three months.
It is great to see CHF coming back again and poetry translation workshop getting back to business.
CHF is highly addictive and the weekly poetry translation workshop is especially so.
I won't be able to participate every week, but I will submit my translation whenever I get time. As always, here are my literal translations in English and Manchu.

Seeing the question in your posts, I feel obliged to explain a little bit...
There is an interesting anecdote about how 枕石漱流 became 枕流漱石: ...

Though this is an old Chinese expression, ironically I learned it in my Japanese class, from the name of 夏目漱石 Natsume Souseki, a famous Japanese writer in Meiji era.

Welcome back, Manjuniyalma! I am so glad to see you here!
Just be here the time you manage to be.
Your explanation and the anecdote you introduce us to shed all the light we need on that last verse.
I have two questions:
-Is it a quotation of something (then of what?)
- Does the name of Souseki have anything to do with it? It looks like it.
I read Kokoro sometime ago. It desserves its fame.

[manjuniyalma]

I have two questions:
-Is it a quotation of something (then of what?)
- Does the name of Souseki have anything to do with it? It looks like it.
I read Kokoro sometime ago. It desserves its fame.

1. Yes, this is a quotation from 《世说新语Shi Shuo Xin Yu or "Anecdotes contemporaines et nouveaux propos" in French (per Wikipedia)》by 刘义庆(Liu Yiqing, AD403-AD555) in 南朝(Souther Dynasties).
2. 夏目漱石 なつめそうせきis the pen name of Natsume Kinnosuke (夏目金之助なつめきんのすけ). I recall that in my Japanese class, my teacher taught us that 漱石(Sousekiそうせき) in his pen name is from the expression 枕流漱石; and 漱石 literally means to rinse one's mouth with rocks, or hone one's teeth, but the meaning has become to make oneself more articulate or to make oneself talk clearly.