《人间词话》英译（二十六）

古今之成大事业、大学问者，必经过三种之境界：“昨夜西风凋碧树，独上高楼，望尽天涯路”，此第一境也。“衣带渐宽终不悔，为伊消得人憔悴。”此第二境也。“众里寻他千百度，蓦然回首，那人却在灯火阑珊处。”此第三境也。此等语皆非大词人不能道。然遽以此意解释诸词，恐为晏、欧诸公所不许也。

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Throughout the ages all those who have been highly successful in great ventures and in the pursuit of learning must of necessity have [successively] experienced three kinds of ching-chieh.

Last night the west wind shriveled the green-clad trees,

Alone I climb the high tower

To gaze my fill along the road to the horizon.

expresses the first state (ching).

My clothes grow daily more loose, yet care I not.

For you am I thus wasting away in sorrow and pain.

expresses the second state.

I sought her in the crowd a hundred, a thousand times.

Suddenly with a turn of the head [I saw her],

That one there where the lamplight was fading.

expresses the third state. Such words as these could not have been uttered by other than great tz’u writers. However, if we happened to use this idea [of ching-chieh] to explain the meaning of the poems themselves, I am afraid Yen Shu, Ouyang Hsiu, and Hsin Ch’i-chi would have demurred.