《论诗》

论诗

赵翼

其一

满眼生机转化钧，天工人巧日争新。

预支五百年新意，到了千年又觉陈。

On Poetry

Chao Yi

I

The world is alive with inspiration to a potter who turns the wheel.

By nature’s doing and human skill, too, one strives daily for something new.

I predict, though, a new thought that holds for five hundred years

Will become, in another five hundred, hackneyed and stale.

（Irving Lo 译）

On Poetry

Zhao Yi

I

The life I see all around me turns

on the Potter’s Wheel of Change:

Heaven’s skill and human craft

always compete for the new.

The poet provides a new idea

that lasts five hundred years,

but when it’s reached a thousand years,

it seems like a cliché.

（Stephen Owen 译）

其二

李杜诗篇万口传，至今已觉不新鲜。

江山代有才人出，各领风骚数百年。

On Poetry

Chao Yi

II

The poems of Li Po and Tu Fu, passed along myriad voices,

No longer seem in this modern era so fresh and new.

Every age these rivers and hills produce a genius,

Each capturing in spirit the Odes and Song* for scores of decades.

*The Shih-chingand Ch’u Tz’u, the two oldest anthologies of Chinese poetry.

（William Schultz 译）

On Poetry

Zhao Yi

II

Poems of Li Bo and Du Fu

have passed through thousands of mouths,

and by now they’ve come to seem

not vivid or new at all.

In every age our hills and our rivers

bring forth men of talent

and each holds sway over poetry

for a span of five hundred years.

（Stephen Owen 译）

On Poetry

Zhao Yi

(2)

Li Bai, Du Fu made poems

Millions admire.

But who could write like that today?

Every time has its own masters,

Every master owns his own wonders.

（丁祖鑫 译）

On Poetry

Zhao Yi

Li-Du’s* poems have been recited by innumerable people,

Now their poems are inconsiderable as fresh and strong.

The homeland will bring a genius at some timetable,

Each genius will be admirable for few centuries long.

*Li-Du here refers to the greatest poet Li Bo (701-762) and Du Fu (712-770) in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

（朱曼华 译）

On Poetry

Zhao Yi

Li Bai and Du Fu’s verse* is read from mouth to mouth,

But now it cannot arouse our emotion new.

Talents emerge from age to age, from north to south,

To lead in verse for hundred years each has his due.

*Li Bai (701-762) was the greatest romantic poet and Du Fu (712-770) was the greatest realistic poet of the Tang Dynasty.

（许渊冲 译）

On Poetry

Zhao Yi

Poems of Li and Du have been widely read;

Now they are no longer so fresh.

Every epoch has geniuses of its own;

Each leads in the poetic world for hundreds of years.

（王晋熙、文殊 译）

其三

只眼须凭自主张，纷纷艺苑漫雌黄。

矮人看戏何曾见，都是随人说短长。

On Poetry

Zhao Yi

(3)

Piercing minds

Create piercing understanding.

Chittering, chattering

Confuses tiny minds –

The way a dwarf at a fair

Sees nothing,

Says only what others who see

Say.

（丁祖鑫 译）

On Poetry

Zhao Yi

Original opinions come from one’s own judgement;

Many people making criticisms just freely wag their tongues.

How can dwarfs watching a performance see anything?

They just repeat what others have said.

（王晋熙、文殊 译）

其四

词客争新角短长，迭开风气递登场。

自身已有初中晚，安得千秋尚汉唐。

On Poetry

Zhao Yi

Poets all contend to put forth something new;

They turn up in succession, each with a fresh style.

Everyone has his earlier, middle and later stages;

How can Han and Tang be the models for ever?

（王晋熙、文殊 译）

其五

诗解穷人我未空，想因诗尚不曾工。

熊鱼自笑贪心甚，既要工诗又怕穷。

On Poetry

Chao Yi

V

The best of poetry comes from the destitute, but my pocket is not yet empty;

I gather, it’s all because I haven’t perfected my skill as a poet.

Having fish to eat or bear’s paw? * I admit, I’m greedy for both:

I yearn for skill in poetry, yet how I dread being poor!

*Alluding to a famous parable in the Meng-tzu, in which Mencius points out that when two delicacies, fish and bears’ paw, are placed before a person and he can only have one of the two to eat he has to make a difficult choice.