《人间词话》英译（五十四）

四言敝而有《楚辞》，《楚辞》敝而有五言，五言敝而有七言，古诗敝而有律绝，律绝敝而有词。盖文体通行既久，染指遂多，自成习套。豪杰之士，亦难于其中自出新意，故遁而作他体，以自解脱。一切文体所以始盛终衰者，皆由于此。故谓文学后不如前，余未敢信。但就一体论，则此说固无以易也。

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Four-word-line verse, having lost its freshness, gave place to the Ch’u tz’u, which in turn gave place to five-word-line verse, and when that had lost its freshness it gave place to seven-word-line verse. When ancient-style verse (ku-shih) lost its freshness it gave place to regulated verse and quatrains, and these in turn gave place to tz’u. That is to say, when a genre has been in use for a long time a great number of people will have tried a hand at it and it is natural for it to become conventionalized. The unrestrained, brave poets then find it difficult to produce new meaning in the old form and therefore break away to try other forms in order to get free from the old restrains. This is the reason why all genres flourish in the beginning and decay in the end. Thus I find it quite unbelievable to say that later literature in general is not as good as the earlier, but if it is a question of a particular genre, then such a statement holds true.