《人间词话》英译（九十六）

自竹垞痛贬《草堂诗馀》而推《绝妙好词》，后人群附和之。不知《草堂》虽有亵诨之作，然佳词恒得十之六七。《绝妙好词》则除张、范、辛、刘诸家外，十之八九，皆极无聊赖之词。古人云：小好小惭，大好大惭，洵非虚语。

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Ever since Chu Yi-tsun so severely criticized the Ts’ao-t’ang shih-yu and praised Chueh-miao hao tz’u (Tz’u of outstanding excellence), later scholars have all fallen right into line with his views. What they have not realized is that even though Ts’ao-t’ang may contain some rather obscene pieces, about six or seven out of ten of the tz’u are really fine poems; whereas in Chueh-miao hao tz’u, except for poems by men such as Chang Hsiao-hsiang, Fan Ch’eng-ta, Hsin Ch’i-chi, and Liu Kuo eitht or nine out of ten of the tz’u are extremely low-spirited. One of the ancients once said: ‘Small liking, small shame, great liking, great shame.’ How apt!