《人间词话》英译（八十二）

词家时代之说，盛于国初。竹坨谓：词至北宋而大，至南宋而深。后此词人，群奉其说。然其中亦非无具眼者。周保绪曰：“南宋下不犯北宋拙率之病，高不到北宋浑涵之诣。”又曰：“北宋词多就景叙情，故珠圆玉润，四照玲珑。至稼轩、白石，一变而为即事叙景，故深者反浅，曲者反直。”潘四农曰：“词滥觞于唐，畅于五代，而意格之闳深曲挚，则莫盛于北宋。词之有北宋，犹诗之有盛唐。至南宋则稍衰矣。”刘融斋熙载曰：“北宋词用密亦疏、用隐亦亮、用沈亦快、用细亦阔、用精亦浑。南宋只是掉转过来。”可知此事自有公论。虽止庵词颇浅薄，潘、刘尤甚。然其推尊北宋，则与明季云间诸公，同一卓识也。

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Discussion of different ears of tz’u writers flourished at the beginning of the present dynasty. Chu Yi-tsun said that tz’u broadened out in the poets all respected his judgment. Still, among them were some who had discerning eyes. Chou Chi said: ‘As fro the Southern Sung, at their worst they did not commit the Northern Sung error of clumsy, unpolished composition; but at the same time at their best they could not reach the all-embracing heights of the Northern Sung writers.’ And again he said: ‘Most of the Northern Sung tz’u sought [the medium of] scenery to describe emotions. Therefore they are round pearls, smooth jade, crystal-like on all sides. Coming to the time of Hsin Ch’i-chi and Chiang K’uei, in a flash they turned to using factual affairs to describe scenery. They made the profound become superficial, the intricately turning become straight.’ P’an Te-yu said: ‘… tz’u found their source in the T’ang, developed in the Five Dynasties, and for breadth, depth, intricacy, and directness of meaning and form, none can surpass the tz’u of the Northern Sung. For tz’u it is the Northern Sung just as for shih it is the Golden Age of the T’ang. But in the Southern Sung tz’u degenerated to a certain extent.’ Liu Hsi-tsai said: ‘Northern Sung tz’u made use of a tightly-woven [structure] yet were also loose enough [to see through clearly]; they made use of the abstruse yet were at the same time lucid; they made use of the somber, yet were also cheerful; made use of the minute yet were also broad; made use of the unmixed yet were also a blend. The Southern Sung turned this right around’. From these examples we can see that this was a matter of open discussion. Although Chou Chi’s tz’u are rather superficial and insipid, and P’an’s and Liu’s even more so, still the fact that they esteemed the Northern Sung [tz’u writers] show s that they possessed the same high level of understanding as the Yun-chien scholars at the end of the Ming dynasty.