苏轼·《石钟山记》英译

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The Classic of Water says: "At the mouth of Pengli stands the Stone Bell Mountain." Its commentator Li Daoyuan(died A.D. 527) states that "there is a deep water at its foot, where the winds and waves striking the rocks make a sound like that of great bells."

People often discredit this statement, for bells and musical stones submerged in waves do not make such a sound, not to speak of rocks. Not until the Tang Period did Li Bo visit the place, where he found two rocks from the water. When struck with a wooden handle, they made a clanging sound, dying away gradually like bells, one in a clearer and the other in a muffled tone. He thought he had thus verified the origin of the name. But I had my doubts, for there are certainly rocks which make a ringing sound when struck, but these were said to make sounds like bells.

In June 1084, I was making a voyage from Qi'an to Linru, and my eldest son, and thus we had no opportunity to visit it and see the stone bells. A monk sent a boy to show us. The boy took an ax and struck at some of the rocks near by at random, but there was nothing unusual about the dull thuds. I gave up for hearsay and laughed.

That night, however, there was a bright moon, and I took a boat with Mai to the foot of the mountain. The river here was flanked by a high cliff almost a thousand feet high. As seen in the moonlight, the rocks looked very much like some weird monsters or dark spirits in frightening postures. The hawks nesting above flew up with raucous cries upon hearing our approach. There was another noise like an old man coughing chortling somewhere in the air. We were told that this came from a species of cranes. I was quite moved and was thinking of turning back when a great noise came over the waters, booming and whining like drums and bells, which quite frightened the boatman.

Upon close examination, I found that at the foot of the cliff were a number of stone caves of unknown depth. When the waves hit the caves, it made that roaring, surging noise. On turning back past Hanshan, at the point where the lake waters joined the big river, there was a huge rock in the middle of the stream, big enough to hold a hundred people. This huge boulder was full of holes and hollows, and the winds and waters sucking through them swish-swashed and make a booming noise, which joined with the clanging from the water caves to make such a symphony.

I said to my son: "Mai, you see. That clanging from the caves will help you to understand the mention in history book of the sound of the bells of the Emperor Jing of Zhou Dynasty, and the boom will help you to appreciate the description of the orchestra bells of Wei Zhuangzi. Evidently, what the ancient books tell us is true."

One is often inclined to doubt ancient records until one personally sees these things. Li Daoyuan must have seen what we have seen, but he was not very explicit. The scholars usually would not take the trouble to take a boat to the foot of the cliff, so they could not have known. The boatmen know about it, of course, but they do not record it in books. Li Bo verified it only superficially by knocking at a couple of rocks on land, and he never really found out where the sounds came from.

I write this down, to show that Li Daoyuan did not say enough and Li Bo did not know enough.

（林语堂 译）