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2010年12月11日 星期六

Xu Zhimo's Autumn Moon 除志摩的『秋月』

I do not know how many poems have been written about the moon by Chinese and other poets.  In China, the chances of poets having written something or other about the moon in autumn is probably astronomically greater because of a special institution celebrated by every one in China: the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is a clear mark of Xu Zhimo's genius that nothwithstanding such enormous output from the past on this subject, he still manages to come up with a completely new type of autumn moon, with a completely new type of feeling. The poem and my translation follows.


 


           秋月                                                Autumn Moon


一樣是月色                                         It's the same moonlight


今晚上的,因為我們都在抬頭看-- Tonight's, because we're both lifting our gaze to it--


看它,一輪腴滿的嫵媚,                 Look at it, a roundish spill of allure;


從烏黑得如同暴徒一般的                 Rising from a pile of clouds            


雲唯裏昇起--                                      Black as a violent mob--


看得格外的亮,分外的圓。            It looks extra bright, especially round


它展開在道路上,                            It spreads over the paths,


它飄閃在水面上,                            It floats shimmering upon the surface of the water.


它沈浸在                                            It is sunk into


水草盤結得如同憂愁船的                the reeds woven  into a boat of sorrow 


水底,                                                underneath the water


它睥睨在古城的雉碟上,  It's looking sideways from the bird disc upon the ancient town


萬千的城磚在它的清亮中, thousands of townwall bricks bathed in its brightness


呼吸,                                                are breathing,


它撫摩着                                           caressing,


錯落在城廂外內的墓墟,the tombs randomly dotting the boxes of the town within and without


在宿鳥的斷續的呼聲裏,in the intermittent cries of the nesting birds


想見新舊的鬼,               one could see ghosts new and old


也和我們似的相依偎的站着,like us, leaning against each other, standing


眼珠放着光,                     their pupils all bright


咀嚼着徹骨的涼:             chewing bone-chilling cold:


銀色的纏綿的詩情             endlessly entwining poetic feelings in silver 


如同水面的星燐,             like starry phosphors above the surface of the water


在露盈盈的空中飛舞。     dancing in dewy air.


聽那四野的吟聲--               listening to the sighs of the fields


永恆的悲微的諧和,          eternal and slightly sad harmony,


悲哀揉和着歡暢,              sorrow mixed with joy,


怨仇與恩愛,                      blame and vengeance with gratefulnss and love,


晦冥交抱着火電,              darkness embracing fire and electricity


在這繩的秋夜與秋野的 in this pale expanse 


蒼茫中,            of enmeshing autumnal night and autumnal landscape 


「解化」的偉大                the magnificence of "resolution"


在一切纖微的深處           unfurling 


展開了                                in the delicacy of the deep 


嬰兒的微笑。                    the smile of an infant.


The poet appears to be doing some moon gazing with his lover. He compares the darkness of the sky to the darkness of the soul of those accustomed to violence so that the moon appears all that brighter and more serene. He sees the moonlight throwing its net of silver over the tombs littered here and there in no particular order within and outside of the old townof the moon and the sound of the nesting birds evokes images of ghost. But even the ghost are hovering together like lovers in the moonlight but there in the netherworld, the light of the moon does not warm, leaving only a bone-chilling cold. The only thing which appear to take to wings are the poet's poetic emotions. In the smile of the infant, we forget all about the conflicts between our persoal, family or social group. As he says, an infant's smile is sufficient to to dissolve/transform all the details into a grand picture of liberation.


6 則留言:

  1. "Do you wish for forever autumn ?   You love falling autumn leafs , leaving behind fallen memories,     Wish for a brand new day, and yet, you'd to stay for the winter first,       For happy moments long gone, and you can't grasp them,        Forever grief and everlasting thirst for love,         Autumn comes and goes away, forever and ever..."  Good evening, my dear old friend ! 










    [版主回覆12/12/2010 18:52:00]We can never catch time. We're forever either behind or ahead of time! Time is as elusive as women, who only want to you follow them where they will but never allow you to catch them! Autumn is no exception! It's mixed with joy, sorrow, fire and electricity, and often ends in regrets and nostalgia, for both parties. Yet how can we live without women!

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  2. 為您送來圖片,配合徐先生的詩意。
    [版主回覆12/12/2010 18:47:00]Thank you so much for your beautiful photo!

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  3. The true love is:   more simple and  purify,  will last much  longer ...
    [版主回覆12/12/2010 22:48:00]Yes, one would dearly love that to be so. But love can seldom be unilateral. A lot of people think that all that is necessary is for one person to love another. That is absolutely necessary of course. But that is only half of the story. To complete love, a perfect circle is needed. We need the object of one's love to return the love though not necessarily in exactly the same way. Remember the symbol of the Tao where the Yang intrude into the sphere of influence of the Yin and vice versa! Subject to that, the simpler and purer the love, the longer will it last. It lasts longer because there are less preconditions of its continuation!

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  4. 我是天空裡的一片雲,偶爾投影在你的波心,
    你不必訝異,更無須歡欣,在轉瞬間消滅了蹤影.
    你我相逢在黑夜的海上,你有你的,我有我的方向, 你記得也好,最好你忘掉,交會時互放的光芒....
    我是天空裡的一片雲,偶爾投影在你的波心,
    你不必訝異,更無須歡欣,在轉瞬間消滅了蹤影.
    你我相逢在黑夜的海上,你有你的,我有我的方向,
    你記得也好,最好你忘掉,交會時互放的光芒....
    下星期天氣轉冷...要小心身體..穿多件衫
     
     
    [版主回覆12/13/2010 06:44:00]Yes, that's one of the best loved poems of Xu Zhimo. I like that very much too. Thank you. I hope that you'll find a less soul destroying job. Don't burn yourself out. It may not be worth it.

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  5. 呵呵.. 估唔到有都有英文版的徐志摩詩句
    [版主回覆12/13/2010 09:28:00]So long as Elzorro is alive and kicking, you'll definitely have more English versions of Chinese poetry and Chinese versions of English, French and Spanish poetry! Ain't that not wonderful!

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  6. TO THE MOON
    Art thou pale for weariness
         Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth,
    Wandering companionless
          Among the stars that have a different birth,
    And ever changing, like a Joyless eye
         That finds no object worth its constancy?
     
    By Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
    [版主回覆12/13/2010 17:27:00]Too bad for the poet. Perhaps he was not looking for her at the right places. Perhaps he considered every one he saw unworthy of his attention. There could have been a thousand and one possibilities. I feel sorry for him. Hope he died a happier man.

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