《人间词话》英译（五十五）

诗之三百篇、十九首，词之五代、北宋，皆无题也。非无题也，诗词中之意，不能以题尽之也。自《花庵》、《草堂》每调立题，并古人无题之词亦为之作题。如观一幅佳山水，而即曰此某山某河，可乎？诗有题而诗亡，词有题而词亡。然中材之士，鲜能知此而自振拔者矣。

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The 300 poems of the Shih ching, the ‘Nineteen old poems’, and the tz’u of the Five Dynasties and Northern Sung all lacked subject headings (t’t). It is not that the authors refused to give them subject headings, but the content of these poems could not be completely expressed in one title. With the compilation of collections such as Hua-an and Ts’ao-t’ang, however, every poem was given a heading and headings were even supplied for the tz’u of former poets. This is equivalent to gazing at a painting and saying that it is such-and-such a mountain or such-and-such a river. What nonsense! When a shih acquires a subject heading it is so shih, and the same can be said of tz’u. But mediocre poets seldom understand this and are thus caught in their own trap.