《人间词话》英译（九十五）

宋《李希声诗话》曰：“唐人作诗正以风调高古为主。虽意远语疏，皆为佳作。后人有切近的当、气格凡下者，终使人可憎。余谓北宋词亦不妨疏远。若梅溪以降，正所谓切近的当、气格凡下者也。

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The Sung dynasty work, Li His-sheng shih-hua, says, ‘When the ancients wrote shih they considered it most important that the air and melody (feng-tiao) be lofty and ageless. And with their meaning far-reaching and diction penetratingly clear, they were all superior works of art. But among later poets the trend was toward the tightly meshed, precise [way of expression], and their vital force and from became quite mundane, with the result that they are looked on with nothing but disgust.’ It is my opinion that the tz’u of the Northern Sung were also unobstructed and were penetratingly clear [in diction] and far-reaching [in meaning], but from Shih Ta-tsu onwards, we really find what is called the tightly-meshed, precise way of expression and mundane style.