Today, I am posting a quatrain by Li Qingzhao which was probably written on a summer day when travelling pass River Wu where was located a shrine in honour of the Grand Lord of Western Chu, Xiang Yu (after the fall of the Qin dynasty) who lost the empire to the Lord of Han, Liu Bang. The struggle between the two is immortalized on the Chinese chess board with the words 楚河 Chu River, 漢界 Han Boundary. Here goes my rendition:
Li Qingzhao (1084-1151): River Wu/ Quatrain
Written on a Summer Day
1
In life, among men, be a leader;
2
In death, of the dead, a hero be.
3
Till now, Lord Xiang Yu is still remembered:
4
In defeat, he’d rather die than flee.
Translated by Andrew W.F. Wong (Huang
Hongfa) 譯者: 黃宏發
16th June 2019 (17.6.19; 18.6.19;
19.6.19)
Translated from the original - 李清照﹕烏江/ 夏日絕句
1
生當作人傑
2
死亦為鬼雄
3
至今思項羽
5
不肯過江東
Notes:
*Form, Metre and Rhyme: The original is a 5-character quatrain or
“jueju” 絕句 which is a 4-lined short poem.
This English rendition is in tetrameter (4 beats or feet) largely iambic
in metre. The rhyme scheme is XAXA as in
the original.
*Lines 1 and 2: These 2 lines are exhortations. I have taken生 in line 1 and 死 in line 2 to mean
“in living” and “in dying” (not “when alive” and “when dead”). They are, therefore, rendered as “In life” and
“In death” respectively. 當(should) 作(be) 人(men) 傑(outstanding) in
line 1 is rendered as “among men, be a leader” (= be a leader of men), and 亦(also) 為(be) 鬼(ghosts) 雄(strong hero) in
line 2 is rendered as “of the dead, a hero be” (= be a hero of the dead).
*Line 3:
至今 is translated literally as “Till now”. I have taken 思(think) in this context to mean 思念(remember, in this
case, the dead) and have, therefore, translated it also literally as “is still
remembered”. 項羽, being a name, is
transliterated with the word “Lord” added to hint at the fact that he was the
Grand Lord of Western Chu 西楚霸(伯)王 vying against the Lord of Han 漢王
Liu Bang 劉邦
for the Qin dynasty 秦朝 Chinese empire. Although it
was Xiang Yu who crushed the Qin army and ended the Qin dynasty in 206 BC and
was the strongest of all lords, he was in the end defeated by Liu Bang, the
Lord of Han, who successfully established the Han dynasty 漢朝 on Xiang Yu’s
death in 202 BC.
Thank you so much for your work on this account! It's helping immensely in my own poetic work inspired by in particular Tang Chinese poetry, and my admiration for the art in general.
ReplyDeleteAll the best to you.
I appreciate the thoughtful analysis presented here. If you're curious about your cognitive age, a Mental Age Quiz can be interesting, but remember it's not a substitute for a formal IQ assessment.
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