苏轼·《石钟山记》英译

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The Guide to Waterways states, "At the mouth of Lake Peng-li stands Stone Bells Mountain." Li Tao-yuan believed that "where the foot of the mountain meets the deep lake, a slight breeze stirs up the waves so that the water strikes the rocks, producing sounds like that of great bells." People have often doubted this explanation. Recently, some bells and chimes were placed in the middle of the water, and although a strong wind stirred up the waves, they did not emit any sounds. So how could this be true of the rocks? Li Po of the Tang was the first to travel to the site, and he found a pair of rocks protruding from the lake. "I struck them and listened," he wrote. "The one to the south sounded deep and turbid, the one to the north had a high, clear pitch. After they were struck, the sounds continued to reverberate as the vibrations slowly faded."

On the day ding-chou in the sixth month of the seventh year of the Yuan-feng era [July 14, 1084], I took a boat from Chi-an to Lin-ru, and because my son Mai was on his way to Te-hsing in Rao Prefecture to serve as magistrate, I saw him off as far as Hu-kou. So I was able to view the so-called Stone Bells. A Buddhist monk had a boy bring along an ax and strike one or two of the scattered rocks. They gave off a dull thud — "hung-hung" — and I laughed in disbelief. In the evening when the moon shone brightly, I went with Mai alone in a small boat to the foot of the cliff. The huge rock rose slanting up a thousand chi, resembling a ferocious beast or a strange demon, terrifying as if it was about to seize one. The perching falcons on the mountaintop were startled by the sound of humans, and their piercing cries —"che-che" — rang out through the sky. And then there were sounds like an old man yelling and laughing in a canyon. Someone said, "That must be a crane." I had just begun to feel uneasy and wanted to return when loud sounds were emitted on the surface of the water, booming "tseng-tseng" like continuous bells or drums. The boatman was frightened. We slowly approached to investigate and found that at the foot of the mountain were grottoes and fissures in the rock. I could not tell how deep they were, but it was the small waves which entered, surged around, and crashed against each other that were causing this sound.

As the boat returned, it passed between two mountains and was about to enter the harbor. There was a huge rock standing in the middle of the current, which could accommodate a hundred people seated. It was hollow inside, and it also had many holes in it. It swallowed and spit out the wind the water, giving off ringing sounds — "kuan-kan tang-ta" — as the water struck it. It seemed to reply to the booming sound we had previously heard, just like a musical performance. I laughed and said to Mai, "Do you recognize this? The booming sound is the bell Wu-I of King Ching of the Chou dynasty, and the ringing sounds are the Singing Bells of Wei Hsien-tzu. The ancients have not deceived me!"

Should one arbitrarily decide about the existence of something without personally investigating it? Li Tao-yuan probably witnessed what I did, but his description was vague. Since gentlemen would never moor a small boat at the foot of a sheer cliff at night, none of them could know about it. Fishermen and boatmen may have known, but they could not express it. This is why the facts have not been transmitted by my contemporaries. Moreover, an unintelligent person investigated it by striking it with an ax, and thought that he had found the truth. I have written this down because I regret Li Tao-yuan's simplicity and laugh at Li Po's shallowness.

（宜立敦 译）