Meditations on the Yellow Crane
(Tune: “The River All Red”)文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14124.html
Yue Fei文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14124.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14124.html
To spy a vista of th’ Central Plain,文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14124.html
From far away my eyes I strain.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14124.html
Beyond the hazy wilderness文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14124.html
Are many wall-enclosed cities.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14124.html
In years that had away declined,文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14124.html
There, flower-sheltered, willow-shaded,文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14124.html
Were gabled towers decorated文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14124.html
With phoenix-and-dragon designs.
Before the Imperial Hill were whirls
Of maids wearing emeralds and pearls;
And in the Royal Theatre, oft
Music and singing rose aloft.
But now, what can be there descried?
Rampant in the suburbs ride
Mail-clad invaders, kicking up dust
Like windstorms in awesome gusts.
What has become of our warriors?
They’re turned to grease for blades of swords!
What has become of the people?
They’re filling up gullies and fords!
The self-same landscape; I sigh
That thousands of hamlets ruined lie!
O when, for sanction can I plead,
An army of crack troops to lead,
So as in one straight dash to cross
The River and the Lo, to clear
Up the alien, barbarous dross!
And then returning to, to resume
My Hanyang tour, then disappear
Astride the Yellow Crane, like fume!
（王知还 译）
The River All Red
On Mounting Yellow Crane Tower
Yue Fei
I gaze on Central Plain from afar,
Beyond the wasteland drear and dry,
How many city walls and towns there are!
In years gone by,
As many pavilions and bowers
Were screened by green willows and red flowers,
The Royal Hill adorned with pearls and emerald,
The Fairy Palace filled with flute songs. Now behold!
Neath city walls enemy horses raise a dust
When the wind blows in gust.
Where are our armed men?
By swords they were slain.
And people alike
Have filled moat and dyke.
Alas! The land still seems the same,
But villages lie ruined in war flame.
When can I get the order
To lead my warriors brave,
Whipping my steed, to cross the river wave
And clear the border?
When I come back again,
I’ll make a southern trip on yellow crane.
（许渊冲 译）
Manjianghong · Meditation on the Yellow Crane Tower
Yue Fei
Looking at the Central Plain far away,
I see many towns lost in the flame of wars.
Do you remember them in the past day?
They were overgrown with willows and flowers,
And stood lofty bowers and mansions in the cities all.
In the Gen Hill, the odalisks in crowds serve the Emperor,
In the Palace, music and singing sound in Penghu Hall*.
But they are shrouded by a cloud of dust today,
Trampled by enemy’s steeds in a big way.
How ’bout our army?
So blunt are their sabre.
How ’re th’ people of our country?
From great miseries they suffer.
I sigh over our sacred hill and river
Where towns and villages are so desolate and dreary,
When will I take an order to lead a crack troop of army
To cross the Yellow River to recover the lost territory?
But then I’ll return to Hanyang as a visitor,
Again to ascend the Yellow Crane Tower.
* Penghu Hall, a main hall in the Palace of Gen Hill.
（冯志杰 译）
P’u – Man Chiang Hung
(To the tune-title ‘Sunset on the River’)
The Yellow Crane Tower
Yue Fei
In the distance, look; beyond the spreading mists to the central Plain –
How many cities once there were!
Think back along those years and there,
encircled by blossom and willow,
Stood Phoenix Tower and Dragon Hall.
On the face of Wan-sui-shan
painted railings would along;
In the P’eng-hu-tien
music sounded, pipe and song.
But now
In the Imperial City’s suburbs armoured horsemen throng,
Raising a foul dust.
Our soldiers, where are they?
Grease for the tips of lances.
Our people where are they?
Choking up the ditches.
For alas! Although the rivers and hills remain
Villages in thousands like forsaken.
When can I offer to lead a mighty army
In one resistless sweep across the land of the great rivers?
And then come back again
To Han-Yang, and there take up my freedom – an Immortal
Riding his Yellow Crane.
（Alan Ayling and Duncan Mackintosh 译）
On Brown Heron Tower*
Yue Fei
In the distance through the haze, I see the many-citied
Central Plain before me spread,
And recall the former days
When willows and flowering trees their shade
On grand Imperial Palace shed.
Sweet music from the court is wafted through the balmy air;
Prosperity and peace are showered on each passing head.
But now, mailed horsemen roam and trample over all the countryside,
And fill the air with dread.
Our people, they
In fosses tread.
Our soldiers, where?
To spear-points fed.
The lay of land looks still the same, but hides
A thousand villages all ruined, dead.
Ah when allowed to lead a valiant troop across, in one
Clean sweep, clear all this filth from off the Yellow River bed?
Then come again, resume my present leisure tour – on heron’s
Back to seek oblivion fled.
* (in present day Wuhan) where legend has it that a sage of old attained immortality and flew away on the back of a brown heron.
（Chan Hong-Mo 译）
My Country
Yueh Fei*
From afar
I look upon China, my fatherland.
I behold many cities and walls;
I recall the green willows and blossoms
That encircled and adorned Dragon Pavilion
And Phoenix Tower,
And the Hill of Ten Thousand Years.
All are now weed-grown, neglected,
With shards scattered everywhere.
Where once were the music of sheng and song
One sees but the tracks
Of evil men and iron-shod hoofs.
The watercourses and moats are choked
With the bodies of my people.
Our soldiers lie transpierced
With spear and with sword.
Lamenting is heard on mountain and stream,
And a thousand hamlets stand deserted and silent.
Oh, when can I rally a valiant host
To cross the clear river
And crush the Mongol foe,
To free my people and the land of my fathers?
Then would I be content to mount the yellow crane on high. **
Notes:
* Yueh Fei was a famous Sung general.
** To die.
（Henry H. Hart 译）
Red-Brimmed River
Yueh Fei
China I see from afar:
Through cloud and smoke
Many ramparts yet stand.
To think of blossoms and green that once (long ago)
Enshrined homesteads and land:
Of emerald wings bedazzling Wan Shui Hill, *
Or ringing songs resounding in Feng Wu Hall** –
Now I but see
Alien footmark and iron hoof
Pollute the sand.
My people fill
The ditch and holes,
My soldiers’ flesh
Food for spears foul;
Heartbreak to dream of home, their wasted
Hamlets uncomforted!
When shall a dashing host I ever lead
One crushing blow to reach the longed-for goal?
Time then enough
To dance, to sing, to fiddle, when
My heart’s consoled.
Notes: Wang Shui, Feng Wu: names of palaces.
（黄雯 译）
