Ziye’s Ballads of the Four Seasons*    Li Bai (701-762)

Tr. YK Chan 陈耀国译

^* Note: 亦作”子夜吳歌”。Also known as “Ziye’s Song of Wu”.

“子夜” (Midnight) was the name of a woman in the Jin 晉 Dynasty (265 – 420), who allegedly started this ballad style of poem in southern China.

春歌
秦地羅敷女              采桑綠水邊
素手青條上              紅妝白日鮮
蠶飢妾欲去              五馬莫留連

Spring Song             

Maiden Luofu in the land of Qin,
Picks mulberry leaves by the river.
Her pale arms stretched across the green bough,
In bright sunlight her red dress shimmers.
Silkworms famished I’d like to go,
Ought not to loiter here your five-horse carriage.

夏歌
镜湖三百里         菡萏发荷花
五月西施采         人看隘若耶¹
回舟不待月         归去越王家

Summer Song
Mirror Lake stretches far and wide,

Teeming with lotus blossoms nigh.
In the fifth moon when Xi Shi the beauty picks the flowers,
Onlookers amass in Yuoye¹ for such a spectacular.
Before moonrise her boat returns,
To the royal house as heads turn.

___________________

¹ Xi Shi’s hometown

秋歌
长安一片月          万户捣衣声
秋风吹不尽          总是玉关情
何日平胡虏          良人罢远征

Autumn Song
The moon shines bright over Chang An City;
Household laundry bats are stirring the night.
Autumn breezes forever blow and blow,
Always carry my heart to Gate Jadeite.
When will all the Tartars be conquered,
To let my dear husband quit this distant fight?

冬歌

明朝驿使发          一夜絮征袍
素手抽针冷          那堪把剪刀
裁缝寄远道          几日到临洮

Winter Song      

Next morn the courier is setting off;
My warrior’s gown has to be sewn tonight.
Slender hands pulling a chilly needle;
Those scissors can hardly be held tight.
To send the tailored garment far away,
When will it reach Lintao and be alright?

Yu Fong-ying 余晃英 (WYK1961) recently started me to think about getting Chinese verse forms adapted for the English language as some worthy contribution to cross-cultural fertilization. Both the sonnet and the haiku have been successfully adapted into English from Italy and Japan, respectively.  Maybe some Chinese verse forms too can be similarly adapted.

I picked Li Bai’s best known 4-line poem 夜思 as a first attempt at this adaptation.  Over the Easter long weekend, with Fong-ying’s collaboration, we arrived at the version below to start the ball rolling for anyone who is interested in taking up this challenge.  It does not have to be a translation.  It can be a composition in the form of a 4-line pentasyllabic verse, 五绝 (wujue), preferrably in monosyllables and with the rhyme scheme of abcb, but any 4-line pentasyllabic verse will do.   A 4-line septasyllabic verse, 七绝 (qijue),  is fine too.  Also see Fong-ying’s wujue English composition “This Place I Roam” below.  –YK Chan (WYK1965)

夜思 李白                      Nocturnal Thoughts         Li Bai
(五绝)                         (Wujue : A four-line pentasyllabic verse)   Tr. by YK Chan & FY Yu
床前明月光,                     Bed side, Bright Moon shines;
疑是地上霜.                     Ground frost comes so fine?
举头望明月,                     Up at Moon I look;
低头思故乡.                     Down, for home I pine.

Wujue: This Place I Roam             五绝: 此地堪浪游
By YU Fong-ying                       余晃英作     陈耀国译

Red the maple leaves                  枫叶红北国
White hilltops like dome            穹顶白岭头|
Homeland now it is                     新乡兹落户
This new place I roam                 此地堪浪游