主持人

王如利（Wang Ruli）

丁立群（Ding Liqun）

Introduction

      今日七夕，时人奉之为中国情人节。与七夕相关的爱情故事，除了它的起源传说“牛郎织女”外，唐明皇和杨贵妃的故事也同样家喻户晓。说李、杨的故事和七夕有关，是因为诗人喜欢将他们类比牛郎织女。白居易《长恨歌》说：“七月七日长生殿，夜半无人私语时。在天愿作比翼鸟，在地愿为连理枝。”李商隐《马嵬》写：“此日六军同驻马，当时七夕笑牵牛。”别管天上人间、帝王百姓，人们对于爱情的追求都是一样的。本期《华章英韵》有幸请到旅美作家、翻译家吴兴禄先生为读者带来英文版《长恨歌》。吴先生是韵译高手，但《长恨歌》洋洋千言，闳中肆外，很难用另一种语言全面传达其音、形、意之美，故而吴先生退而求其次，没有考虑音步和押韵。虽然译诗略失原作抑扬顿挫的节奏感，但文笔自然流畅，叙述感人至深，足见译者的非凡功力。

      Today is the Double Seventh Day, currently known as the Chinese Valentine's Day. Except for the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl from which this very festival originated, the well-known love story of Xuanzong and Concubine Yang is also related to this special day, for poets like to compare them with the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. In "Song of Everlasting Regret", Bai Juyi writes: "On the seventh day of the seventh moon in Longevity Hall,/They vowed to each other at midnight when none were near:/They wished to be birds flying side by side in the sky,/They wished to be two bough-interlaced trees on earth.” Li Shangyin also relates in "Mawei": "Now together the Six Troops stopped their horses and refused to advance,/ Then on the Double Seventh how they'd laughed at the Cowherd's mischance!" Thus, we may say, no matter in the heavens or on the earth, for the royal family or to the common people, the pursuit of true love is universal. This issue of Chinese Verse in English Rhyme has the great honor to invite the Chinese American author and translator Mr. Wu Xinlu to share with our readers his English translation of "Song of Everlasting Regret". Mr. Wu is an expert of rhyme in poetry translation, but this poem is a long and detailed narrative poem with nearly one thousand characters and is nearly impossible to be conveyed in sense, sound and form at the same time. Given this, Mr. Wu decided to take the second best and attempted at a free verse translation. Although the musical cadence of the original is somehow lost, the translated poem is natural, fluent and touching, which shows the translator's extraordinary expertise.

（蔡铁勇书法）

长恨歌

唐•白居易

汉皇重色思倾国，御宇多年求不得。

杨家有女初长成，养在深闺人未识。

天生丽质难自弃，一朝选在君王侧。

回眸一笑百媚生，六宫粉黛无颜色。

春寒赐浴华清池，温泉水滑洗凝脂。

侍儿扶起娇无力，始是新承恩泽时。

云鬓花颜金步摇，芙蓉帐暖度春宵。

春宵苦短日高起，从此君王不早朝。

承欢侍宴无闲暇，春从春游夜专夜。

后宫佳丽三千人，三千宠爱在一身。

金屋妆成娇侍夜，玉楼宴罢醉和春。

姊妹弟兄皆列土，可怜光彩生门户。

遂令天下父母心，不重生男重生女。

骊宫高处入青云，仙乐风飘处处闻。

缓歌慢舞凝丝竹，尽日君王看不足。

渔阳鼙鼓动地来，惊破霓裳羽衣曲。

九重城阙烟尘生，千乘万骑西南行。

翠华摇摇行复止，西出都门百余里。

六军不发无奈何，宛转蛾眉马前死。

花钿委地无人收，翠翘金雀玉搔头。

君王掩面救不得，回看血泪相和流。

黄埃散漫风萧索，云栈萦纡登剑阁。

峨嵋山下少人行，旌旗无光日色薄。

蜀江水碧蜀山青，圣主朝朝暮暮情。

行宫见月伤心色，夜雨闻铃肠断声。

天旋地转回龙驭，到此踌躇不能去。

马嵬坡下泥土中，不见玉颜空死处。

君臣相顾尽沾衣，东望都门信马归。

归来池苑皆依旧，太液芙蓉未央柳。

芙蓉如面柳如眉，对此如何不泪垂。

春风桃李花开日，秋雨梧桐叶落时。

西宫南内多秋草，落叶满阶红不扫。

梨园弟子白发新，椒房阿监青娥老。

夕殿萤飞思悄然，孤灯挑尽未成眠。

迟迟钟鼓初长夜，耿耿星河欲曙天。

鸳鸯瓦冷霜华重，翡翠衾寒谁与共。

悠悠生死别经年，魂魄不曾来入梦。

临邛道士鸿都客，能以精诚致魂魄。

为感君王辗转思，遂教方士殷勤觅。

排空驭气奔如电，升天入地求之遍。

上穷碧落下黄泉，两处茫茫皆不见。

忽闻海上有仙山，山在虚无缥渺间。

楼阁玲珑五云起，其中绰约多仙子。

中有一人字太真，雪肤花貌参差是。

金阙西厢叩玉扃，转教小玉报双成。

闻道汉家天子使，九华帐里梦魂惊。

揽衣推枕起徘徊，珠箔银屏迤逦开。

云鬓半偏新睡觉，花冠不整下堂来。

风吹仙袂飘飖举，犹似霓裳羽衣舞。

玉容寂寞泪阑干，梨花一枝春带雨。

含情凝睇谢君王，一别音容两渺茫。

昭阳殿里恩爱绝，蓬莱宫中日月长。

回头下望人寰处，不见长安见尘雾。

惟将旧物表深情，钿合金钗寄将去。

钗留一股合一扇，钗擘黄金合分钿。

但教心似金钿坚，天上人间会相见。

临别殷勤重寄词，词中有誓两心知。

七月七日长生殿，夜半无人私语时。

在天愿作比翼鸟，在地愿为连理枝。

天长地久有时尽，此恨绵绵无绝期。

Song of Everlasting Regret

Written by Bai Juyi of Tang Dynasty

Translated by Wu Xinglu

The emperor of Han preferred women of great beauty,

He sought them out for years but in vain.

A girl in the Yang family just grew up,

Not known to anyone, being raised in deep boudoir.

Born too beautiful to give herself away easily,

She was eventually chosen at the side of the emperor.

One glance back from her beamed one hundred kinds of charm,

And the beauty of all the ladies in the six palaces1 was shadowed.

In still cold spring she was granted a bath in the pool of Huaqing2,

Her smooth skin bathed in the warm spring water.

So delicate, she was helped up by her maids,

That's the first time she enjoyed the love of the emperor.

Cloud-like hair, flower-like face, golden dangling ornament,

Spring3 nights all spent under the warm lotus canopy.

The night was too short and the sun rose high,

The emperor neglected his morning levee ever since.

Pleasing and waiting on the emperor at feast, she got no moment to spare,

Outing in spring every day, sleeping with the emperor every night.

The emperor had three thousand fairs in the harem,

But his love of the three thousands centered on one.

In the golden boudoir she made herself up for the evening,

After a feast in the jade pavilion she's drunk in spring3 action.

Her brothers and sisters all got fiefs,

Her family was admirably endowed with imperial glory.

This made all the parents under the heaven

Desirous of having girls instead of boys.

The palace on the Li Mountain towering high into the clouds,

The fairy music carried by the wind, heard everywhere.

Charming songs, graceful dances with string and bamboo instruments,

The emperor could not enjoy enough all day long.

The war drums came from Yuyang4, shaking the ground,

Breaking the Melody of Rainbow Dress and Feather Garments5.

Smokes and dusts rose from nine gates6 of the capital,

Thousands of coaches and horses marching southwest.

With emerald coach canopies swaying, they moved, then stopped.

Only a hundred miles west outside the capital.

As the troops refused to advance, the emperor could do nothing,

And the sobbing beauty died in front of his horse.

Pearl-inlaid headdress fell on the ground, but none cared to pick it,

Also hair ornaments of emerald and gold in bird shape, and jade hairpins.

The emperor couldn't save her, only covering his face,

When looking back, there flew tears and blood.

Yellow dusts floated up in the air, the wind soughing,

They scaled to Sword Pavilion7 on zigzag wooden board way up into clouds.

At the foot of E-Mei Mountains8 travelers are seldom seen,

While the banners lost brightness and the sun looked pale.

The river of Shu9 was green and the mountains of Shu were blue,

The mood of the emperor morning and evening imaginable.

In the temporary palace as the emperor watched the moon, its light seemed grievous.

In the night rain the sound of bells was heart-rending.

Like heaven and earth whirling, the dragon coach10 returning,

But at that moment, he hesitated to leave there.

In the earth at the foot of Mawei Mound11

There's no body of the buried beauty seen.

Emperor and courtiers looked at each other, their clothes wet with tears;

Their horses cantered eastward to the gate of the capital.

When returning, the pond and gardens were still the same,

Also the peonies in Taiye Pond and willows in Weiyang Palace.

Her face like the peonies and her eyebrows like willow leaves,

Confronting these, how could the tears not be trickling?

Also on the day when the blooms of peach and plum blew in spring,

And at the time when the leaves of Chinese parasol fell in autumnal rains.

There's a lot of autumnal grass in western and southern palaces,

And the ruddy fallen leaves all over the steps no one swept.

The performers of the imperial troupe had new white hair growing.

The eunuchs and maids in her former chamber became old.

As fireflies darted in the evening hall, the thought of her stole in,

When the wicker in the single lamp burned up, sleeplessness lasted.

The night grew long and the morning bell and drum sounded late,

The day's breaking and the Milky Way still seen across the sky.

The dews dense on the cold tiles shaped in mandarin ducks,

The emerald quilts also cold since no one to sleep in together.

During the lasting separation of life and death experience for years,

Her ghost had never come into the dream of the survivor.

The Taoist from Linqiong12 was the visitor to Hongdu12,

Who could summon the ghost with his spirit of earnestness.

Touched by the whole-hearted thinking of the emperor,

The Taoist set his heart on searching her ghost far and wide.

He rode on the air into the other space as swift as lightning,

Exploring everywhere in Heavens and in the other world.

He sought in paradise and he sought in Hades,

And her ghost was not there in either place.

All at once he heard of the fairy mountains on the sea;

The mountains were situated in the vast void.

The magnificent pavilions rose among five-colored clouds,

In which there were a lot of elegant goddesses.

One of them was called Taizhen13,

With snow-white skin and flower-beautiful face as she had.

He knocked at the jade door of the west chamber in the golden pavilion,

Asking Xiaoyu14, the maid, to tell Shuangcheng14, another maid,

When hearing the arrival of the messenger of the Han emperor,

Her ghost startled from the dream in splendid canopy.

Lifting her dress, pushing away her pillow, she loitered forth,

The silver screen with pearly foils opened gradually.

With her piled-up hair tilting aside, just awake from the sleep,

She walked into the hall in disheveled wreath crown.

Her fairy dress fluttered up in the wind,

Like in a dance of rainbow-colored feather-adorned garment.

Her pretty face reflected solitude with tears trickling,

Like a pear blossom in the spring rains.

She thanked the emperor with a gaze full of feelings,

His voice and visage was so far away after parting.

Thus ended the love expressed in Zhaoyang Hall;

But here in Penglai Palace the time was eternal.

When looking down back to the human world,

She couldn't see Chang An, the capital, but mists and dusts.

To show her deep feelings she could only produce the old stuff,

And wanted to send the gold hairpin and decorated box,

She kept half of the pin and box for herself.

That's half of the pin gold, half of the box decoration.

If only our hearts so sincere as gold and box so sturdy,

We'd meet either in heavens or in the world.

When parting, she sent words by the Taoist,

There's a vow in the words they both knew.

On the seventh day of the seventh moon in Longevity Hall,

They vowed to each other at midnight when none were near:

They wished to be birds flying side by side in the sky,

They wished to be two bough-interlaced trees on earth.

Heaven and earth, though everlasting, might have an end,

The parting regret of theirs would last without an end.

Notes：

[1] Six palaces denoted the living quarters of the emperor's women collectively.

[2] Huaqing is the name of a place where there was a bathing pool for the imperial family.

[3] The Chinese character "spring" can imply sex.

[4] Yuyang is the name of a place, where a rebellion happened.

[5] The Melody of Rainbow Dress and Feather Garments meant the dance with music performed by Concubine Yang. The emperor liked it very much. When the rebellious army came, he could not watch the dance any more.

[6] Nine gates meant that the capital city had many gates and also could mean that there were gates after gates to the palace.

[7] Sword Pavilion is the name of a place in the present Sichuan Province.

[8] E-Mei Mountains are in the Sichuan Province, on which there are many temples.

[9] Shu is the nickname of Sichuan Province.

[10] Dragon coach was a coach used only by the emperor. Dragon in China was the imperial emblem.

[11] Mawei Mound was the name of a place where the concubine Yang was forced to die and buried there.

[12] Linqiong was the name of a place and Hongdu denoted the capital.

[13] Taizhen was another name of Concubine Yang.

[14] Xiaoyu was the daughter of King Fucha of Wu Kingdom in the East Zhou Dynasty. Shuangcheng was the daughter of Queen Goddess in Chinese mythology. Both were used here to denote the maids of Concubine Yang in the fairyland.

The Translator's Remarks

“长恨歌”是唐代著名诗人白居易的名作，本人从小喜欢诗词，特别为诗中真挚的爱情故事感动。后来学了英文，也特别喜欢英文诗歌。以后工作之余，喜欢把中国诗词译成英文，介绍给外国读者。外国人有许多爱情诗，中国人也有爱情诗。而最脍炙人口的爱情长诗就是“长恨歌”。所以我把它译成了英文。向外国人表示我们中国也有这么高质量的爱情长诗。因为翻译这么长的诗，当然不可能考虑音步与押韵，否则太花精力脑力了。

      "Song of Everlasting Regret" is a famous long poem by Bai Juyi, a renowned poet of Tang Dynasty. As I liked and learned poetry since childhood, I was especially touched by the tale of the true love between the emperor Xuanzong and his imperial concubine Yang, who had an age difference of some ten years. AfterI learned English, I also like English poetry. When I was grown up, I did some translation work at my spare time. As there are lots of love poems in English, I'd like to introduce some Chinese love poems to foreigners and the first love poem I thought of to translate is this long poem. So the work is done here.

The Translator

吴兴禄，网名海外逸士，上海人，自幼喜好诗词古文，及长专业英语，曾执教国内某大学。及今赴美三十余年，安享退休岁月。已出版两本诗词古文英译，两本中文小说：《新西游记》和《荒唐女侠》，十一本英文书：《功夫大师》《慈禧太后》《武则天大帝》等等，均可见于美国最大网购站上。

      Xinglu Wu, his web name is Oversea Hermit, coming from Shanghai. He loved poetry and classics since childhood. When he was adult, his major was English and was a teacher in some University in Shanghai. He lived in the US for more than 30 years and is now enjoying his quiet retired life. He has published two books of translation of Chinese old poems and essays into English, and two novels in Chinese:New Journey to West and Swordswoman of Absurdity, also eleven books in English, such as Kungfu Masters, Empress Dowager Cixi, and Empress Wu the Great, etc. They can be checked on amazon.com.

《中外诗文翻译》

主 办：中诗网、译诗群

协 办：月印无心佛教文化平台“太原头条”、大家网、金融街电讯新媒体头条

总顾问 ：何功杰、李正栓、张智中、卓振英

总策划 ：周占林、宛城卧龙

名誉主编：周占林

主 编：王磊、释圣静

名誉副主编：王永纯、德肋撒.李

副主编 ：黄金珠、蔡铁勇