歸隱 陳摶

歸隱      陳摶 (? -989)

十年蹤跡走紅塵，回首青山入夢頻，

紫綬縱榮爭及睡，朱門雖富不如貧。

愁聞劍戟扶危主，悶聽笙歌聒醉人，

攜取舊書歸萬隱，野花啼鳥一般春。

Retreating into Reclusion       Chen Tuan (? -989)

       

These ten years I’ve been roaming all over the world’s quarters,

Looking back, the green hills that often adorn my dreams are just too familiar,

The purple insignia of the court can never compare to a good night’s sleep however glorious they are,

Wealthily living behind a great crimson gate is but as good as the poor,

Army commanders, powerful they may be, in times of turmoil, risk their lives for their threatened sovereign in danger,

Court music, however fascinating, annoys those who just want to get drunk as an undesirable buster,

I’d better take all my old books and retreat to my old reclusive bower,

Where the wild flowers and birds are just as enchanting as anywhere.

自詠 韓愈

自詠       韓愈 (768-824)

一封朝奏九重天，夕貶潮陽路八千。

本為聖朝除弊政，敢將衰朽惜殘年。

雲橫秦嶺家何在？雪擁藍關馬不前。

知汝遠來應有意，好收吾骨瘴江邊。

A Poem On Myself      Han Yu (768-824)

No sooner had I presented my memorial in the morning to the Emperor,

Than I was demoted and exiled eighty thousand miles south to county of Chao’an in the vesper,

Trying only to admonish His Majesty on his erroneous decision for the state’s welfare,

How dare I shirk my duties for this descript body of mine in my late years,

Clouds shroud the Qin Ridges blinding the bearings of my home quarters,

Thwarted by heavy snow at the Azure Gate my horse would go no further,

I know what’s in your mind as you’ve come such a long way to meet me here,

It’s so thoughtful of you prepared to collect my bones in this country of miasma.

觀公孫大娘弟子舞劍器行·并序 杜甫

觀公孫大娘弟子舞劍器行·并序     杜甫(712-770)
大歷二年十月十九日，夔府別駕元持宅，見臨潁李十二娘舞劍器，壯其蔚跂，問其所師，曰：“余公孫大娘弟子也。” 開元三載，余尚童稚，記于郾城觀公孫氏舞劍器渾脫，瀏灕頓挫，獨出冠時，自高頭宜春梨園二伎坊內人洎外供奉，曉是舞者，聖文神武皇帝初，公孫一人而已。玉貌錦衣，況余白首，今茲弟子，亦非盛顏。既辨其由來，知波瀾莫二，撫事慷慨，聊為《劍器行》。昔者吳人張旭，善草書書帖，數常于鄴縣見公孫大娘舞西河劍器，自此草書長進，豪蕩感激，即公孫可知矣。

昔有佳人公孫氏，一舞劍器動四方。
觀者如山色沮喪，天地為之久低昂。
霍如羿射九日落，矯如群帝驂龍翔。
來如雷霆收震怒，罷如江海凝清光。
絳唇珠袖兩寂寞，晚有弟子傳芬芳。
臨潁美人在白帝，妙舞此曲神揚揚。
與余問答既有以，感時撫事增惋傷。
先帝侍女八千人，公孫劍器初第一。
五十年間似反掌，風塵澒洞昏王室。
梨園子弟散如煙，女樂餘姿映寒日。
金粟堆前木已拱，瞿塘石城草蕭瑟。
玳筵急管曲復終，樂極哀來月東出。
老夫不知其所往，足繭荒山轉愁疾。

On Seeing a Pupil of Madam Gongsun Performing 

the Dance Jian Qi – A Ballad

Du Fu (712-770)

On the nineteenth day of the tenth month of the second year of Dai Li in the house of Yuan Chi, Deputy Governor of Kui Prefecture, I saw Li the Twelfth Madam of Lin Ying perform the dance Jian Qi. Amazed by the brilliance and verve of her art, I asked from whom she learned it. I was a pupil of Madam Gongsun she replied.

I recall in the third year of Kai Yuan when I was still a little boy seeing Gongsun perform the Jian Qi dance and the Hun Tuo at Yan City. For consummation of techniques and the mettle, audacity and versatility of the strokes she was unequalled in her day. From the royal command performers and the insiders of the Spring Garden and Pear Garden in the Palace down to official call dancers outside, there was no one during the early years of His Sagely Peaceful and Divinely Martial Majesty who understood this dance as she did. Where now is that lovely figure in its magnificent costume? Now I’m already a hoar haired old man and this pupil of hers is well past her prime.

Having found out the pupil’s credentials, I now realized that what I had been watching was an original reproduction of the great dancer’s version of the dance. Mulling over my reminiscence I felt urged to write a ballad on the Jian Qi Dance.

Years ago, Zhang Xu the great master of cursive hand calligraphy, having seen Gongsun perform the Hexi Jian Qi several times at Ye City discovered afterwards, to his great gratitude, that his calligraphy has greatly improved. This should be able to shed some light on how great a dancer Gongsun was.

There was a fair lady surnamed Gongsun not too long ago,

Whenever she performed the Jian Qi dance she attracted spectators from all quarters to exalt,

Spectators as numerous as the hills were all awesomely appalled,

Even long after she finished her dancing the whole earth seemed all stumbled in a tumble,

Her dazzling swoop was like the nine suns by the legendary archer Yi’s arrows felled,

As vivacious as the gods riding their dragons across the heavens was her elan vital,

Her advances like thunder amassing its bellow,

Her pauses like river and seas frozen in hyaline gelid glow,

Her crimson lips and pearl adorned sleeves are now reposed,

But in her late years there was a pupil who inherited her art’s ambrosial vital verve,

Now this fair lady from Linying performing her art in the City of Bai Di on thrilled mettle,

Her answers to my questions revealed my admiration for her were reasonably rational,

Mulling over my reflections I am thrilled by angst and dismals,

In His Majesty’s service there were eight thousand women to avail,

Gongsun was from the outset the first to perform the dance Jian Qi before His Regal,

Fifty years have now gone by like the hand’s wiggle,

In these fifty years the royal house was plagued and darkened by treacherous upheavals,

Pupils of the Pear Garden have vanished like hazy mizzles,

On the fading glamour of this lady the chilly wintry sun glows,

South of the Hill of the Grain of Gold trees flanking the road to the Imperial Tomb have grown tall enough for their branches to have an arch to hold,

South of the Hill of the Grain of Gold the trees flanking the road to the Imperial Tomb have grown tall enough for their branches to have an arch to hold,

On the rocky wall of Qutang the dead grasses shrivel and whittle,

In the grand feast the shrill flutes once again come to their finale,

When pleasure is climaxed and sorrows follow the moon in the east again shows,

This gaffer knows not where to go,

Over the desolate mountains his calloused feet feed with more and more angst and dismals as further and further he goes.

韋諷錄事宅觀曹將軍畫馬圖 杜甫

韋諷錄事宅觀曹將軍畫馬圖     杜甫(712-770)
國初已來畫鞍馬，神妙獨數江都王。
將軍得名三十載，人間又見真乘黃。
曾貌先帝照夜白，龍池十日飛霹靂。
內府殷紅瑪瑙盤，婕妤傳詔才人索。
盤賜將軍拜舞歸，輕紈細綺相追飛。
貴戚權門得筆跡，始覺屏障生光輝。
昔日太宗拳毛騧，近時郭家獅子花。
今之新圖有二馬，復令識者久嘆嗟。
此皆騎戰一敵萬，縞素漠漠開風沙。
其餘七匹亦殊絕，迥若寒空動煙雪。
霜蹄蹴踏長揪間，馬官廝養森成列。
可憐九馬爭神駿，顧視清高氣深穩。
借問苦心愛者誰，後有韋諷前支遁。
憶昔巡幸新豐宮，翠華拂天來向東。
騰驤磊落三萬匹，皆與此圖筋骨同。
自從獻寶朝河宗，無復射蛟江水中。
君不見金粟堆前松柏裏，龍媒去盡鳥呼風。

On Seeing a Horse Painting by Cao Ba in the 

House of Recorder Wei Feng

Du Fu (712-770)

Painters of saddle-horses who have won acclaim since this dynasty’s inaugural,

The Prince of Jiangdu was the only one long acclaimed as ingeniously original,

Through thirty years of acclaim comes this renowned general,

The legendary horse Sheng Huang of old once again emerges in this world,

Once he painted our late emperor’s horse the Night Glow,

For ten days over the Dragon Pool thunders rolled,

A dish of dark red agate in the inner Treasury,

Ladies-in-waiting and maids of honour were ordered to get hold,

The dish bestowed after performing his dance of obedience returned our general,

Soon a rain of silks and satins from the most powerful imperial kinfolks kept chasing after the general,

They felt their screens would be lackluster unless graced by the general’s samples,

Great horses of the past Tai Zhong’s famous horse Curly,

And more recently Guo Ziyi’s grey horse Lion Dapple,

They have both been painted by our general,

Connoisseurs who’ve seen them utter long cries of marvel,

They are both war horses ten thousands others’ equal,

The white silk ground behind them spreads into an expansively expanse of windblown sand sprawl,

The other seven horses in the painting are all singularly original,

Far up above them, a chilly sky is laden with a mingle of snow and sunset glow,

On rolls of tall catalpa trees their frosty hooves paw and trample,

By their sides stable boys and grooms stand in rows and files,

Vying with each other their divine elan vital,

These nine distinguished horses gaze aloft with a deep rooted spirit of formidable mettle,

Who have been the lovers of the these horses most devoted,

Wei Feng in recent times and Zhi Bai in times of old,

The Majesty’s progress to the Xinfeng Palace I recall,

His emerald banner brushed the heavens as eastward the journey ensued,

Thirty thousand horses to the east throng in undulating files,

In sinews and bones they were on par with the horses in this portrayal,

Since the state visit to the River Lord and the offering of precious jade jewels,

No more shooting of dragons again in the waters did ever befall,

Can you not see since the Dragon’s Messengers departed from amidst the pines and cypresses in front of the Hill of the Grain of Gold,

Only birds are left on the wind to warble.

白帝城最高樓 杜甫

白帝城最高樓    杜甫(712-770)

城尖徑昃旌旆愁，獨立縹緲之飛樓。

峽坼雲霾龍虎臥，江清日抱黿鼉遊。

扶桑西枝對斷石，弱水東影隨長流。
杖藜嘆世者誰子，泣血迸空回白頭。

The Tallest Tower in Bai Di City       Du Fu (712-770)

Tall tall rises the tower and tortuously winding is the trail,

On it banners gloomily and sulkily unfurl,

It is an independent diaphanously veiled flying tower that in the sky dangles,

Anon the gulf seems to crack and brumous clouds and frosty haze veils under which oddish rocks like obscure dragons and tigers lie in purdu in the torrential flux swell,

Presently as the sun resumes its shiny glow the river waters turn limpid again and tortoises are seen playing and swimming between the rocks of the shoal,

Espying from here you seem to be able to see the boughs of the heavenly tree at the east from where up the sun goes via-vis the gulf,

The mythic river and the Great River always run parallel,

Whosoever is this gaffer on a cane who so deploringly waisl for the world,

This hoar hair old man could only inanely shed his bloody tears to the heavens and recoil.