菩薩蠻

鬱孤台下清江水    中間多少行人淚    西北是長安  可憐無數山

青山遮不住  畢竟東流去  江晚正愁餘  山深聞鷓鴣 

Written on the Wall of Zaokou      Xin Qi Ji(1140－1207）江紹倫譯

‘Neath the Gloom Terrace two rivers flow
The water contains so much tears of refugees on the road
To the northeast I gaze looking for our lost Capital
Sadly all I see are but hills

Hills verdant cannot block my view
Eastward the rivers continue to flow
Would they care for my heart’s ills
I hear partridges cry from among distant hills

今夕少愉樂  起坐開清尊
舉觴酹先酒  為我驅憂煩

須臾心自殊  頓覺天地暄
連山變幽晦  綠水函晏溫

藹藹南郭門  樹木一何繁
清陰可自庇  竟夕聞佳言

盡醉無復辭  偃臥有芳蓀
彼哉晉楚富  此道未必存

Drinking           Liu Zong Yuan（773—819）江紹倫譯         

Nothing joyful in view this day at dawn
I get up to open a bottle of clear brew
Let me first thank the Lord of Wine
He helps me dispel all worries in mind

A single draught makes the world different
Everything becomes colourful and exuberant
Mountain scenes open up my mind wide
Blue rivers bring warmth divine

The southgate leads to jubilance
Flourishing trees wave arms in exuberance
Under the cool shades I feel fine
And hear good silent advice into the night

Should anyone say I must decline getting drunk
I lie on the perfume meadow rolling round and round
The rich and successful may say with no experience
There’s no joy in drunkenness

夜飲東坡醒复醉
歸來彷彿已三更
家童鼻息已雷鳴
敲門都不應
倚帳聽江聲

長恨此身非我有
何時忘卻營營
夜闌風靜彀紋平
小舟從此逝
江海寄餘生

Returning to Lingao by Night                 Su Shi（1037—1101）   江紹倫譯
Tune: Immortals By the River

Drinking alternating from sober to drunk I mark my name
Returning home ’tis not far from morning
My house boy in slumber continues with his thundering snore
Despite repeated knocks no one answers the door
I turn to the river with my cane to listen to its rhythmic roar

How I regret not being master of my own destiny
Whence could I forget life’s gain and vanity
Night still river ripples calm and soft wind quivers
‘Tis time I ride my skiff free the world my reign
To travel where’er the ocean of life sustain

鷓鴣天

不向長安路上行    卻教山寺厭逢迎
味無味處求吾樂    材不材間過此生

寧作我
豈其卿

人間走遍卻歸耕
一鬆一竹真朋友
山鳥山花好弟兄

At the Bo Shen Temple       Xin Qi Ji(1140－1207) 江紹倫譯
Tune: Partridge Sky

Road to the Capital I no longer seek
Toward the temple friendly monks are hard to meet
I’ve learned to derive taste from foods brand
And led a life unconcerned if my talent its use grand

Myself I am
Than a servitor of fame

Leaving worldly affairs I’ve now returned to till the land
Every pine and bamboo is a true friend
Wild birds and flowers brothers and sisters hand in hand

驛外斷橋邊  寂寞開無主  已是黃昏獨自愁    更著風和雨
無意苦爭春  一任群芳妒  零落成泥碾作塵    只有香如故

In Praise of Mume                    Lu You(1125-1210) 江紹倫譯
Tune: Song of Divination

By the fallen bridge outside the post hall
A flower is in bloom forlorn
She stands in self-imposed dreary by evening
And endures the thrashing of wind and rain

She lays no claim to possess spring
And remain indifferent what envy other flowers bring
Even when her petals fall in mud to become dust
Her fragrance will long remain

舊時月色    算幾番照我  梅邊吹笛
喚起玉人    不管清寒與攀摘
何遜而今漸老      都忘卻春風詞筆
但怪得竹外疏花    香冷入瑤席

江國  正寂寂      嘆寄與路遙  夜雪初積
翠尊易泣    紅萼無言耿相憶
長記曾攜手處      千樹壓西湖寒碧
又片片      吹盡也      幾時見得

Subdue Fragrance      Jiang Kui(1155-1221)      江紹倫譯

Moonlight of yore
How often do you shine on me by my call
To hear me play my flute beside the mume tree

My love I remember you so fair
I reach out for you despite the chill air

How time fleets I’m now old gradually
Forgotten
How my lyrical brush wrote spring events so merry

Beneath the bamboos why should spotty flowers invade
And leave perfumes to cool spreads of jade

My heart a land of streams
Loneliness flows
Could I send you a sprig of mume so far away
When overnight snow begins to cumulate

Branches and leaves shift positions
Memories stall when red petals tell in silent communication

I’ve always remembered together we join hands to create
Witnessed by a thousand trees greening the West Lake 

Why must petals always fall
Whence will you and I join our hands like yore

湖上  閒望
雨蕭蕭      煙浦花橋路遙
謝娘翠娥愁不銷
終朝  夢魂迷晚潮
蕩子天涯歸棹遠
春已晚      鶯語工腸斷
若耶溪      溪水西
柳堤  不聞郎馬嘶

Tune: From the River                Wen Ting Yun（812—870）            江紹倫譯

By the lake
She watches vague

Everywhere rains
Distant beach and bridge in rainy haze

Eyebrows knit the songstress is sad as scenery prolong
All day long
She is lost in the evening tidal song

Her wandering lover is not coming home
‘Tis late spring
Her heart breaks hearing oriels sing

Ask the brook
West of the brook
On the long willowy pathway
When will she hear her lover’s horse neigh

詠燕 

過春社了    度簾幕中間  去年塵冷
差池欲住    試入舊巢相並
還相雕樑藻井      又軟語商量不定
飄然快拂花梢      翠尾分開紅影

芳徑  芹泥雨潤
愛貼地爭飛  競誇輕俊
紅樓歸晚    看足柳暗花暝
應自棲香正穩      便忘了天涯芳信
愁損翠黛雙蛾      日日畫闌獨憑

Swallow Song              Shi Ta Zu(1163-1220)             江紹倫譯
Tune: Pairs of Swallow

Spring is half gone
Between curtains and screen on my door
Last year’s nest stays its mud hard and cold

Wishing to test on a ready made home
A pair of swallows visits to see on their own

Painted ceilings and carved beams they know
Twittering they debated their decision not known
O’er flower beds they wing to and flow
Their fork tails cast moving red shadows

Along the welcoming way
Where rain has moistened clods of clay
The pair flies low in a happy race
Competing on their swift flights so gay

On the evening they return late
Flying between willows and floral maze
They perch in the nest now fragrant and save
Oblivious of a message they were trust to convey

Her anxiety from longing shown on knitted eyebrows
The resident lady waits for her lover by day and by hour

死去元知萬事空
但悲不見九州同
王師北定中原日
家祭無忘告乃翁

To My Son                   Lu You (1125-1210)      江紹倫譯

I know death negates many a worldly deed
Still I grief to see our country not united
Whence our royal force resumed command of the central plain
Tell me in a special rite so my mind will be in peace again