徐灿·《永遇乐·舟中感旧》英译

无恙桃花，<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

依然燕子，

春景多别。

前度刘郎，

重来江令，

片事何堪说。

逝水残阳，

龙归剑杳，

多少英雄泪血。

千古恨，

河山如许，

豪华一瞬抛撇。

 

白玉楼前，

黄金台畔，

夜夜只留明月。

休笑垂杨，

而今金尽，

秾李还消歇。

世事流云，

人生飞絮，

都付断猿悲咽。

西山在、

愁客惨黛，

如共人凄切。

 

Yong yu le:

In a Boat, Moved by the Past      

Xu Can

 

Intact are the peach blossoms,

As always are the swallows,

But the spring sights are greatly changed.

The Master Liu of former days, ¹

The Director Jiang² who returned

Who can bear recounting past events?

Receding waters in the dying sun;

Dragons gone and swords vanished: ³

How much of heroes’ tears and blood!

Ah, eternal plaint

For rivers and hills like these,

Their grandeur cast away in a blink.

Before the White Jade Tower,

By the Yellow Gold Terrace, ⁴

Night after night only the bright moon remains.

Do not mock the weeping willows

Whose golden hue has now faded,

Or the lush plums that likewise have withered.

Flowing clouds of world affairs,

Flying catkins of human life,

All are consigned to the lost gibbon’s mournful sobs.

The western hills survive,

Their sad visage a gloomy kohl,

As though sharing one’s desolate grief.

 

1. Liu Yuxi was repeatedly banished to distant posts. In a poem reflecting on human vicissitudes, written upon returning to the capital (Chang’an) after fourteen years of absence, he refers to himself as “the Master Liu of former days.”

2. Jiang Zong was forced by military riots and dynastic transition to live far away from the southern capital at Nanjing for more than ten years.

3. A reference to two magical swords, which vanished and changed into two dragons after the heroes who discovered them had died.      

4. On the Jade Tower and the Tang poet Li He, King Zhao of Yan built a terrace for literary gatherings and kept a great deal of gold there to reward visiting worthies. Both allusions evoke past glories.

 

（Charles Kwong 译）