丁雄飞·《九喜榻》英译

年来息交绝游，一味静坐，觉广夏俱属长物，得一方床结跏趺足矣。一日过友人斋，一榻坚好，抚而爱之。友人爰举以赠，大慰夙怀，移置心太平庵中。檀香一线，素帷下垂，湛然深广，身世两忘。因念前哲来瞿塘先生，常年学道，万念尽捐，每一人枕，酣寝自如，有九喜焉，因以名榻。予今日亦次予之喜于榻左。一喜多藏书；二喜闺人多笔墨；三喜不能饮；四喜不解奕；五喜为世所弃；六喜得名师；七喜携眷属居山水间；八喜无病；九喜年未五十，家务尽付儿子，翛然世外。百年之内，前有来先生，后有不肖，俱于榻结欢喜缘。先生之所谓喜：一喜生中华；二喜丁太平；三喜为儒闻道；四喜父母兄弟寿考；五喜婚嫁早毕；六喜无妾；七喜寿已逾六十花甲之外；八喜赋性简淡宽缓；九喜无恶疾。

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

The Nine-blessings Couch

Ting Shiungfei

Since my retirement last year, I have stopped all social activities and am doing a great deal of sitting quietly by myself. I have thought that what I really need is a good couch on which to take up my sitting with crossed legs like a Buddhist monk, all else being unnecessary luxury. One day I saw a good, firm couch in the place of one of my friends and loved it. My friend forthwith gave it to me as a present. I was delighted with it and had it put in the center of Peaceful Mind Hall. With a coil of burning incense, and letting the curtains down, I feel it is so spacious and comfortable that I seem to have left the world far behind me. I thought of Mr. Lai Chutang, generations ago, who after long years of study of Taoism had been able to dismiss all worries from his mind. With such a peaceful mind he always had a perfect sleep, and he counted his blessings, which were nine in number, and called his bed by that name. Today I have counted my blessings, too, while resting in bed. They are as follows: I am happy that (1) I have a good collection of books; (2) that I have a wife who loves reading and writing; (3) that I cannot drink; (4) that I do not understand chess; (5) that nobody wants me; (6) that I have found a famous master; (7) that I am able to live with my family in such beautiful surroundings; (8) that I am free from sickness; and (9) that though I am still under fifty, I am able to delegate all matters to my sons and live like a free bird. Thus I am able to take after the example of Mr. Lai, who lived less than a hundred years ago, and both of us have found our happiness in a couch. This couch shall go down to posterity as “the Nine-blessings Couch.”

I note also here that what Mr. Lai called his nine blessings were the following: (1) that he was born in China; (2) that he lived in times of peace; (3) that as a Confucianist he came to hear the teachings of Tao; (4) that both his parents and his elder brother lived a long life; (5) that his children’s marriages were early arranged and completed; (6) that he had no concubine; (7) that he had already reached beyond the age of sixty; (8) that he was born of a mild, easygoing disposition; and (9) that he suffered from no ugly disease.