宮詞 白居易

宮詞     白居易 (772-846)

淚濕羅巾夢不成，

夜深前殿按歌聲。
紅顏未老恩先斷，

斜倚熏籠坐到明。

A Palatial Verse      Bai Juyi (772-846)

Even tears have her scarf soaked through sound asleep she nevertheless unable to fall,

Deep in the night from the front palace come songs harmoniously sung captivatingly rhymatical,
Before her looks fades out the Supreme Lord’s grace abruptly dwindles,
Reclining on the musk clothes drying rack till dawn she idles.

 

 

自河南經亂,關內阻饑,兄弟離散,各在一處.因望月有感,聊書所懷,寄上浮梁大兄,于潛七兄,烏江十五兄,兼示符離及下邽弟妹

自河南經亂,關內阻饑,兄弟離散,各在一處.因望月有感,聊書所懷,寄上浮梁大兄,于潛七兄,烏江十五兄,兼示符離及下邽弟妹

白居易 (772-846)
時難年荒世業空，弟兄羈旅各西東。
田園寥落幹戈後，骨肉流離道路中。
吊影分為千裏雁，辭根散作九秋蓬。
共看明月應垂淚，一夜鄉心五處同。

Being Caught in Turmoils and Famines South of the River and Post My feelings Under the Moon to My Siblings Scattered in Five Places            Bai Juyi (772-846)

In these tumultuous times we have lost all our family estates and chattels,

Our siblings are scattered and straggling all over different social milieus,
Gardens and manors crumpled and shriveled after the turmoils,
Kindreds are left wretched and forlornly struggling amidst paths of doles,
A lone goose grieving over its desolate shadow away from its companions in thousands of miles,
Blown away from my roots I am a forlorn piece of dead weed in the fall,
Together we contemplate the full moon I am sure our tears will fall,
Scattered in five places our nostalgia should be the same saddening for us all.

 

 

賣炭翁 白居易

賣炭翁     苦宮市也    白居易 (772-846)

賣炭翁，伐薪燒炭南山中，

滿面塵灰煙火色，兩鬢蒼蒼十指黑。
賣炭得錢何所營，身上衣裳口中食，
可憐身上衣正單，心憂炭價願天寒。
夜來城外一尺雪，曉駕炭車輾冰轍，
牛困人飢日已高，市南門外泥中歇。
翩翩兩騎來是誰，黃衣使者白衫兒，
手把文書口稱勅，迴車叱牛牽向北。
一車炭重千餘斤，宮使驅將惜不得，
半疋紅紗一丈綾，繫向牛頭充炭直。

The Old Coal Huckster   His coal ransacked by eunuchs from the Palace

Bai Juyi (772-846)

There is an old man who sells coal,

He makes coal out of wood he cuts in the south holts,
His face is full of dust and smoke coated,
His temple hoar and his fingers all darkly soiled,
On what does he spend his income gross?
Clothing himself and his victuals,
But clothes on him are thin and old,
What worries him is the weather gets too warm and price of coal too low,
In the night city suburbs were laid a foot of snow,
At daybreak his coal cart on the frozen road he drove,
At noon both his ox and himself were worn out with toil and moil,
Out of the south gate amid the muddy road he lulled,
Arrogantly two riders approached,
One clad in white and the other yellow,
Declaring an edict to pull,
Wheeling the coal cart to the north and forward they yowled,
More than a thousand catties weighs the cart of coal,
But what the eunuchs dictated one could not say no,
A zhang of silk and red gauze half a roll,
They thrusted these onto the ox head to settle for the coal.

八月十五日夜湓亭望月 白居易

八月十五日夜湓亭望月    白居易 (772-846)

昔年八月十五夜，曲江池畔杏園邊。
今年八月十五夜，湓浦沙頭水館前。
西北望鄉何處是，東南見月幾回圓。
臨風一歎無人會，今夜清光似往年。

Contemplating the Moon at the Pen Pavilion in the Night
of the Mid Autumn Festival                  Bai Juyi (772-846)

In the night of the Mid Autumn Festival last year,

By the side of the Qujiang Pool with the Apricot Garden near,
In the same night this year,
At the sand shore of Penpu and in front of the House of Aqua,
Looking northwest hoping to find the whereabouts of my homeland quarters,
To the southeast the moon turns full and round many times over,
A long sigh in the autumnal gale I utter but nobody cares,
The brightness of the moon is the same over all these years.

 

江樓夕望 白居易

江樓夕望 招客        白居易(772-846)
海天東望夕茫茫，山勢川形闊複長。
燈火萬家城四畔，星河一道水中央。
風吹古木晴天雨，月照平沙夏夜霜。
能就江樓銷暑否？比君茅舍較清涼。

A Night View on the River Tower   Calling my companions   

Bai Juyi(772-846)

Looking east at night the sea and the diaphanous ether voidly voidly spread afar,

The mountains and the river sprawl wide and long long yonder,
Myriad lights are put up by households around the city quarters,
Lit boats throng the middle river waters,
Ancient tree leaves rattle under the whiffling wind like fine day rain showers,
The bright moon shrouds the serene sands with a chilly summer frost layer,
Could you elude the heat and enjoy some cool on the river tower?
Comparing to your cottage it’ll certainly be much better.

 

長恨歌 白居易

長恨歌       白居易(772 - 846)

漢皇重色思傾國，御宇多年求不得。

楊家有女初長成，養在深閨人未識。
天生麗質難自棄，一朝選在君王側；
回眸一笑百媚生，六宮粉黛無顏色。

春寒賜浴華清池，溫泉水滑洗凝脂，

侍兒扶起嬌無力，始是新承恩澤時。
雲鬢花顏金步搖，芙蓉帳暖度春宵；
春宵苦短日高起，從此君王不早朝。

承歡侍宴無閒暇，春從春遊夜專夜。

後宮佳麗三千人，三千寵愛在一身。
金屋妝成嬌侍夜，玉樓宴罷醉和春。
姊妹弟兄皆列土，可憐光彩生門戶；
遂令天下父母心，不重生男重生女。

驪宮高處入青雲，仙樂飄飄處處聞。

緩歌謾舞凝絲竹，盡日君王看不足。
漁陽鞞鼓動地來，驚破霓裳羽衣曲。
九重城闕煙塵生，千乘萬騎西南行。

翠華搖搖行復止，西出都門百餘里，

六軍不發無奈何，宛轉蛾眉馬前死。
花鈿委地無人收，翠翹金雀玉搔頭。
君王掩面救不得，回看血淚相和流。

黃埃散漫風蕭索，雲棧縈紆登劍閣。

峨嵋山下少人行，旌旗無光日色薄。
蜀江水碧蜀山青，聖主朝朝暮暮情。
行宮見月傷心色，夜雨聞鈴腸斷聲。

天旋日轉迴龍馭，到此躊躇不能去。

馬嵬坡下泥土中，不見玉顏空死處。
君臣相顧盡沾衣，東望都門信馬歸。
歸來池苑皆依舊，太液芙蓉未央柳。

芙蓉如面柳如眉，對此如何不淚垂？

春風桃李花開日，秋雨梧桐葉落時。
西宮南內多秋草，落葉滿階紅不掃。
梨園子弟白髮新，椒房阿監青娥老。

夕殿螢飛思悄然，孤燈挑盡未成眠。

遲遲鐘鼓初長夜，耿耿星河欲曙天。
鴛鴦瓦冷霜華重，翡翠衾寒誰與共？
悠悠生死別經年，魂魄不曾來入夢。

臨邛道士鴻都客，能以精誠致魂魄。

為感君王展轉思，遂教方士殷勤覓。
排雲馭氣奔如電，升天入地求之遍，
上窮碧落下黃泉，兩處茫茫皆不見。

忽聞海上有仙山，山在虛無飄渺間；

樓閣玲瓏五雲起，其中綽約多仙子。
中有一人字太真，雪膚花貌參差是。
金闕西廂叩玉扃，轉教小玉報雙成。

聞道漢家天子使，九華帳裏夢魂驚，

攬衣推枕起徘徊，珠箔銀屏迤邐開，
雲髻半偏新睡覺，花冠不整下堂來。
風吹仙袂飄飄舉，猶似霓裳羽衣舞；

玉容寂寞淚闌干，梨花一枝春帶雨。

含情凝睇謝君王，一別音容兩渺茫。
昭陽殿裏恩愛絕，蓬萊宮中日月長。
回頭下望人寰處，不見長安見塵霧。

惟將舊物表深情，鈿合金釵寄將去。

釵留一股合一扇，釵擘黃金合分鈿。
但教心似金鈿堅，天上人間會相見。
臨別殷勤重寄詞，詞中有誓兩心知，
七月七日長生殿，夜半無人私語時。
在天願作比翼鳥，在地願為連理枝。
天長地久有時盡，此恨綿綿無盡期。

The Song of Everlasting Grief          Bai Juyi (772 - 846)
The Han Emperor had a penchant for good looks, and was always looking out for devastating belles,
In his many years of reign his search was to no avail.
The Yang family had just coming of age a young girl,
She was brought up in the women’s bowers and unknown to the outside world;
What beauty Heaven bestowed on her could hardly be ignored,
So one day she was selected to wait on the Supreme Lord;
With a mere glance and a smile on turning her head, she exuded enchantment of a hundred sorts,
She literally rendered the selected beauties of the Imperial seraglio colour naught;

In the spring chills she was granted to bathe in the Clear Pool Splendid,
The hot spring water washed her delicate skin of jade sort,
When maids helped her out from the pool, she emanated a fascinating fragile charm that was rivaled not,
That was the time she started to have had all his favour aught;
Her flowery face, with her velvety hair adorned with golden hairpins, made her even more enamoured,
They spent the spring nights in the warm lotus-colour upholstered boudoir,
The sun rose early as spring nights were short,
From then on the Emperor did not hold any more morning levees at court;

To avail herself to him anytime he wanted even in banquets left her little spare time slots,
In spring, she escorted him on his outings and served him night after night with no default;
There were three thousand glamorous women in the Imperial seraglio, but all the love was bestowed on her alone instead of them as he ought,
After she groomed herself in the golden chamber, she served him for the night without other thought,
They had feasts in the jade pavilion and were intoxicated with the sweet time they sought,
Her sisters and brothers were all enfeoffed,
Honour came to her family’s house with the Emperor’s dote,
This made parents in the world prefer daughters and sons rather not,

Rising into the clouds was the high Palace Tower,
From there fairy music could be heard everywhere,
Displayed were melodies and dances tuned to flute and zither,
The Emperor was still not sated though he watched it all hours.
Suddenly war drums from Yuyang thundered,
The Melody of Rainbow Colour and Feathery Apparel was shattered,
Warring smoke and dust rose in the nine-fold city wall interiors,
To the southwest thousands of carriages and horses were driven afore,

Fluttering forward for a while stopped the emerald imperial banners,
Just a hundred miles or so out to the west of the capital areas,
The armies refused to move forward anymore,
Unless the Emperor promised to have the Lady slaughtered;
Hence the Lady with knitted eyebrows was strangled to death in front of the Emperor
With nobody collecting them her hair jewelleries all around the ground were scattered,

Failing to save her, His Majesty‘s face with his hands covered,
Gazing in anguish, tears mixed with blood oozed from his eyes sored;
A galling gale bringing yellow dust came their way’s course,
Following the winding trail they mounted the mountain to Jiange,
Passengers  under Mt Emei were very scarce,
The sun dimmed away, rendering the banners with no luster,
The waters of River Shu was blue while Mt Shu looked azure,
The Supreme Lord could not put down his affection for her day in and day out at this juncture,
In his sojourn palace he saw the moonlight filled with dire sore,
The sound of the bells in rainy nights cut him to wires,

When the unrest died down, and his imperial carriage embarked on its return trip, he felt heaven and earth all in chaos,
When they reached Mawei where the Lady died, he stalled the carriage and was unwilling to go further,
While being unable to see her jade-like countenance anymore,
The Lord and his courtiers looked at each other and tears pour,
Gazing at the East Gate, to bring them back on they entrusted their horses;
They found the ponds and gardens remained as they were,
Especially the lotuses in Taiye Pond and the Weiyang Garden willows and flowers,

The lotuses resembled her look and the willows her eyebrows,

On seeing that how could he hold back his tears?
Spring breeze brought peach and plum flowers,
Wudong leaves fell under the bitter autumnal rain showers,
In the inner south of the West Palace where His Majesty lived, autumn grass abound in clusters,
Nobody swept the red fallen leaves that had the steps covered;
The hair of the troupe of opera actors all turned hoar,
Aso were attendants of the Queen’s old chambers,

Fireflies in the palace at night-time had the emotions stirred,
The lone lamp burned out many times before he could finally fall into slumber,
The late drums and bells evidenced the length of the vespers,
The twinkling Milky Way seemed to keep dawn waiting at the corner,
Great chills brought by heavy frost on the interlaid roof tiles threatened with shivers,
Now who to share with him the quilt exquisitely embroidered?
Death had now separated the living and the dead for a year,
Her soul had not yet visited him in his dreamy vespers.

Taoist monks from the Hongdu Tao Academy in Linqiong said by exerting bona fides and perseverance they could contact a person's anima,

To save the Emperor from his dire sore,
They offered earnestly to seek for her anima,
Riding the clouds and mounting the airs, like lightening they whizzed afore,
They intended to search exhaustively the heaven and the terra.
Up in the blue sky and down in the Yellow Springs they scoured,
But nowhere had they a glimpse of her persona,

Suddenly they heard there was a fairy mountain beyond the oceania,
It was in the void zone between being and non-being areas,
There five-colour clouds surrounded the exquisite pavilions and towers,
Delicate fairies inhabited the fairy quarters,
One of them was Taizhen, the name she was adhered,
Her snowy skin and flowery face resembled the Lady’s entire,
The Taoist monk went straight to knock at the jade door on the west of the golden boudoir,
He begged the maid Little Jade to report to the Lady’s private maid Shuangcheng as required,

As she heard that the Han Emperor had sent a messenger,
She was startled from her dream in the nine-fold upholstery,
She grabbed a dress and pushed away her pillow and started to atroll over,
Unveiling the pearl curtains and pulling aside the panels silver,
With her velvety hair still ungroomed and her flowery crown disheveled after her sleep, into the hall she entered,
In the breeze her fairy dress resembling the steps of the Dance of Rainbow Colour and Feathery Apparel fluttered,

Her jade countenance soaked with disconsolate tears,
She was literally in the rain a spray of blossom pear,
In expressing her gratitude to the Supreme Lord her eyes were infused with amour,
Since she parted with His Majesty, their voices and faces to each other became too afar,
The deep affection in the Zhaoyang Palace was no more,
Life in the Heavenly Palace seemed extremely long and stalled forever,
As she looked down on the dusty terra,
She could not see Chang’an but only dusty cloud layers,

She could only post her deep affection via a love reminder,
She took out a gold hairpin from a little golden box locker,
Splitting the two arms of the hairpin and the golden locket severed,
She gave these to the monk to hand over to the Emperor to evince their unchangeable love swear,
She believed they would meet again in future either in heaven or on the terra,
When she bid the messenger farewell she had a very important message for the Emperor;
The message included a vow only they themselves aware,
On the seventh night of the seventh month in the Palace of Life Forever,
While whispering to each other alone in the depth of the vesper,
They did pledge to become pair-winged birds in the sky to soar,
And trees with intertwined branches on the terra;
However lasting are heaven and earth, there will be an end to them all after,
But this everlasting grief there is no way to expire.
     

西湖晚歸 白居易

西湖晚歸 回望孤山寺，贈諸客   白居易(772-846)

柳湖松島蓮花寺，晚動歸橈出道場。
盧橘子低山雨重，拼櫚葉戰水風涼。
煙波澹蕩搖空碧，樓殿參差倚夕陽。
到岸請君回首望，蓬萊宮在海中央。

Returning from West Lake Late in the Day        
Bai Juyi(772-846)
Turning back to espy at the Solitary Hill Temple
To all other visitors in the same boat

From the Pine Island of the Lake Willows,

Riding a boat home at night I bid the Buddhist Lotus Temple farewell,
Tangerines dangle low in the heavy hill drizzles,
Palm leaves trample amidst the rough billows under the chilly gale,
The hyaline azure sky wave in the widespread wavering diaphanous misty combers with the raving oars’ rolls,
Undulant pavilions and chambers are thrown into relief against the setting sun’s glow,
On arriving do turn your head to pay homage to the holy pale,
Right in the midst of the waters is the Celestial Temple.   

 

放言 白居易

放言      白居易(772-846)
贈君一法決狐疑，不用鑽龜與祝蓍，
試玉要燒三日滿，辨材須待七年期，
周公恐懼留言日，玉莽謙恭未篡時，
向使當初身便死，一生真偽有誰知？

My Contemptuous Remarks        Bai Juyi (772-846)

To solve your doubts try my elixir,

With that you can dispose of both the turtle and the diviner,
To test a piece of jade you need to burn it for three days entire,
To tell the timber you have to wait at least seven full years,
When the Duke of Zhou was vexed by aspersions and slanders,
And Wang Mang of Han feigned humility when his ambitions to usurp the throne were still undiscovered,
If they died right then and there,
Who will ever know if they were genuinely men of integrity thereafter.

江樓晚眺 白居易

江楼晚眺         白居易 (772-846)

江樓晚眺，景物鮮奇，吟玩成篇，寄水部張員外 。

淡淡煙疏雨間斜陽，江色鮮明海氣涼。

蜃散云收破楼阁^⑷ 蜃散雲收破樓閣，虹殘水照斷橋粱。

风翻白浪花千片^⑹ ，雁点青天字一行^⑺風翻白浪花千片，雁點青天字一行。

好著丹青图画取^⑻ ，题诗寄与水曹郎^⑼ 。好著丹青圖畫取，題詩寄與水曹郎。 ^[1]

Espying from the River Tower at Dusk     Bai Juyi (772-846)

Espying from the river tower at dusk, the scenery is a ravishing peculiar novelty. Hence I’ve concocted a poem on this and presented to Councilor Zhang of the Water Works Department. 

The setting sun flushes through the misty haze and mizzles,

The river looks briskly clear and bathes in drafts of cool,
Mirage towers and pavilions collapse as cloudscape melts,
Leaving on the water surface the image of a broken bridge of rainbow,
Thousands of white billowy petals are hurled up by the gale,
A line of characters are dotted across the azure sky by the wild geese file,
Having this painted in a portrayal,
On Councilor Zhang of the Water Works this poem I bestow.

 

宿湖中 白居易

宿湖中     白居易(772-846)
水天向晚碧沉沉， 樹影霞光重疊深。
浸月冷波千頃練， 苞霜新橘萬株金。

幸無案牘何妨醉， 縱有笙歌吟不休。
十隻畫船何處宿？ 洞庭山腳太湖心。

Putting Up in the Midst of Lake Tai      Bai Juyi (772-846)

Gloomily gloomy dark green the heavens and waters are tinged towards the vesper,

Tree shadows overlaying on the sun’s afterglow ply the scene with much gloomier layers,
The glittering silver moonlight pave the combers with thousands and thousands acres of white silk fibre,
Frost wrought new tangerines dangle from trees glittering like myriad golden lavalieres,
Not bogged down by official devoirs, I may as well drink to my till whatsoever,
With incessant enchanting music around me, I’ve not stopped concocting new verses,
Where should these ten ornate punters put up for the vesper?
Where else but the midst of Lake Tai beneath Mt. Dong Ting the best moor.

 

 

花非花 白居易

花非花     白居易 (772-846)

花非花 ，霧非霧。 夜半來， 天明去。

來如春夢幾多時？ 去似朝雲無覓處。

Flowers An’t Flowers?       Bai Juyi (772-846)

As enchanting as flowers,

But that is not what they are,
Nor they the divine Lady Star from the ether,
Just because they show up only deep in the vesper,
At daybreak they all disappear,
As ethereal as dream rendezvous they pass over,
And untraceable as dispersed morning nebula.