苏轼·《水调歌头》英译

After Drinking All Night at the Bingchen Autumn Festival

(To the tune of Shuidiaogetou)

Su Shi

When was the moon ever so bright? I ask the blue-black empyrean.

What year is it in Heaven? What year this evening?

Would that I could be taken there on the wind!

But I fear the cold riches of the jade moon’s mansions,

So instead I’ll dance a satire to my shadow, like nothing on earth.

The moon alters my red pavilion, threads through the silk door, keeps me awake;

Give up hating realities, my brother, the moon grows fuller and brighter as we feel losses.

What else is it but sorrows, joys, partings and reunions,

As the moon is clouded or brilliant, empty or brimming.

The arrangement is ancient, hardest to those seeking perfection.

Now and always, peace to our hearts, sharing the same far-away Goddess in the One Heaven.

（戈登·奥赛茵、闵晓红、黄海鹏 译）

Shui Diao Ge Tou

Su Shi

Autumn Festival of Bin Chen, a drinking spree till dawn in its honor, got drunk and composed this work, also by way of remembering Ziyou

When will the next full moon be?

Wine in hand, I ask the sky.

What year is tonight

In the palaces in Blue Heaven?

I would hitch a ride and return,

But for the chill high up there

In the marble towers and jade mansions.

So I start dancing, playing with my own shadows;

Not at all like being in the human world.

Turning round the red pavilion,

And leveling with the window,

The moon shines upon my sleeplessness.

Grudge should not be the case here,

But why does the moon always wax full

When we’re apart.

No human is free of sorrows or joys, partings or reunions,

Nor is the moon of shade and light or wax and wane.

Nothing’s perfect since ancient times;

But I would rather man live long

And, however far apart they are,

Share the beauty of Goddess Moon.

（任治稷 译）

Mid-Autumn Festival

(Tune: Prelude to Water Melody)

Su Tung-p’o

How long shall we have the bright moon?

Winecup raised, I ask the blue sky.

I wonder what year it is tonight

In heaven’s palace up high.

I would like to ride on the wind home,

But fear the crystal halls and jade dome

May be too high and cold to vie.

To dance with one’s own shadow light

Liking not in men’s world hereby.

Round the red mansions,

Through the gauzed windows,

On the sleepless guy,

The moon should have no spite;

Then she’s apt to be full when men part, why?

Men have woes or joys, part or unite;

Moon may wane or wax, be dim or bright.

None has been perfect all the way.

Just wish we will live long and share

Her beauty, though we’re miles away.

（施颖洲 译）

Mid-Autumn Festival Night

(To the Tune of Shuidiaogetou)

Su Shi

At the Mid-Autumn Festival of the Year of Bingchen (1076), I drank heartily till dawn, when I wrote the poem, thinking of my brother Ziyou.

When does such a bright moon appear?

Raising the cup, I ask the blues skies.

What year is this year

high in the Celestial Palace?

O I would like to go back, riding the wind,

only it could be so chilly there,

in the jade and crystal tower.

Incomparable to dancing here

in the human world, playing

with my shadow in the moonlight.

Moving around the vermilion mansion,

coming through the carved window,

the moon shines on the sleepless.

No cause for it to be

so spiteful as to choose

to appear full, bright,

when we stay in separation?

As people have sorrows and joys,

meeting or parting,

as the moon waxes and wanes

in clear or cloudy skies,

things may never be perfect.

May we all live long, sharing

the same fair moon,

though thousands of miles apart.

（裘小龙 译）