唐. 劉禹錫4 Tang. Liu Yu Hsi
01 山不在高有仙則名 Mountains are not famed due to their height but by having immortals.
02 水不在深有龍則靈 Waters are not miraculous due to their depth but by dragons.
03 斯是陋室 This is [my] humble abode.
04 惟吾德馨5 With only the fragrance of my virtue.
05 笞痕上階綠6 Traces of moss on the steps of dark green,
06 草色入簾青7 And light green of grasses coming through the curtains.
07 談笑有鴻儒 I converse in smiles with the great learned,
08 來往無白丁8 Nary do I deal with those unlettered.
09 可以調素琴9 Stringless zither could be tuned,
10 閱金經10 Buddhist sutras could be read.
11 無絲竹之亂耳 No string or reed to harass the ears,
12 無案牘之勞形 And no official documents to weary my body.
13 南陽諸葛廬11 There is the hovel of Chu Ko in southern Yang,
14 西蜀子雲亭12 And the pavilion of Tzu Yun in western Shu.
15 孔子云 Confucius said,
16 何陋之有?13 “What’s so spartan about it?”
01 陋 means “crude”, “simple”, “ugly”, “crude”. “Spartan” is a better term in the context of this piece.
02 室 means room in modern usage. In this context, it means “house”, “home” etc.
03 銘 is an inscription to mark some glorious event, a reminder to one’s behavior. Later, it is referred to a writing style known as 駢文that uses parallel lines of similar or contrasting ideas. All poetry couplets are 駢文 but the corollary is not true. Lines 1-2, 5-6, 7-8, 11-12, 13-14 are the more orthodox forms.
04 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Yuxi
05 Literally “virtue fragrance”
6,7 綠 is a shade darker than 青
08 白丁 means the common people because they are not wealthy enough to have their clothes dyed in colors. Here it means the illiterate because only the rich and powerful are wealthy enough to learn how to read and write.
09 素琴 can mean either a zither without decorative embellishments but also mean that a stringless zither. I chose the latter definition because of line 11. At the same time, Liu Yu Hsi could not control his disdain for fools and he definitely let them know his feelings. He became the Number One scholar at the age of 21. Most of his exiles stemmed from the satirical poems he wrote against them. For example, no sooner he returned to the capital upon the completion of an exile, he wrote the following poem mock those in control and caused another exile within three days!
紫陌紅塵拂面來
無人不道看花回
玄都觀裡桃千樹
盡是劉郎去後栽.
Fourteen years later, he repeated himself by another poem upon visiting the same place where his poem was inspired from. This time he even had a short preface to explain the reason of this composition!
百畝庭中半是苔
桃花淨盡菜花開
種桃道士歸何處
前度劉郎今又來
One thing about the author is that he is always optimistic and carefree despite of his circumstances forced on him.
10 Specifically, the Diamond Sutra. Liu was devoted to Buddhism as he was taught by two master Buddhist monks in his youth.
11 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuge_Liang
12 Originally, a study studio but latter, a pavilion was built to commemorate him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yang_Xiong_(author)
13 The original text is “君子居之, 何陋之有?”The front part was not used as it would be considered to be bragging.
Monday, April 17, 2023
