Words and Verse
Songs of Pure Happiness (Translation-Chinese)
Li Bai (Or Li Po as many westerners know him) was, I am convinced, China's greatest poet. He was also a drunkard. I have been studying mandarin chinese and Classical Chinese intensely for two years with native speakers, and I feel that at last my reading knowledge of Classical Chinese is such that I can now begin to translate this and other Chinese poets.
I shall avoid narrating the peculiar and unique difficulties that classical chinese poetry presents to the translator simply because I think that such explications to the readers of poetry are an admission of defeat. If it sings it sings. If it sounds flat, no recounting of the linguistic gymnastics preformed will change that. Therefore I shall merely send such an explication to any reader who happens to be curious enough to ask for it.
Anyway, back to Li Bai. Here are my first translations from him. They are translated into equivalent meter (Iambic Pentameter for 7-character verse) and into the same rhyme scheme. (AABA)
Unfortunately I cannot display traditional Characters on this site. Those who wish to check the originals will find these as poems 317, 318, and 319 of the Tang Poems.
Li Bai
3 Songs of Pure Happiness
I
Her robe's a cloud, her face a flower in bloom,
Her balcony with bright new spring-dew strewn,
If not the gleaming peak of earth's Jade Mountain,
Is the edged roof of paradise- the moon.
II
A thick perfume wafts from the crimson blooms
Mist on the Magic Mountain lightly looms.
No Chinese palace ever knew such beauty,
No court with garments glistening through the rooms.
III
His flowers and lady, lovely when drawn nigh,
Spark flames of joy within the Emperors eye
As she leans on a railing in the garden
Where he hears winds of distant April sigh.
I shall avoid narrating the peculiar and unique difficulties that classical chinese poetry presents to the translator simply because I think that such explications to the readers of poetry are an admission of defeat. If it sings it sings. If it sounds flat, no recounting of the linguistic gymnastics preformed will change that. Therefore I shall merely send such an explication to any reader who happens to be curious enough to ask for it.
Anyway, back to Li Bai. Here are my first translations from him. They are translated into equivalent meter (Iambic Pentameter for 7-character verse) and into the same rhyme scheme. (AABA)
Unfortunately I cannot display traditional Characters on this site. Those who wish to check the originals will find these as poems 317, 318, and 319 of the Tang Poems.
Li Bai
3 Songs of Pure Happiness
I
Her robe's a cloud, her face a flower in bloom,
Her balcony with bright new spring-dew strewn,
If not the gleaming peak of earth's Jade Mountain,
Is the edged roof of paradise- the moon.
II
A thick perfume wafts from the crimson blooms
Mist on the Magic Mountain lightly looms.
No Chinese palace ever knew such beauty,
No court with garments glistening through the rooms.
III
His flowers and lady, lovely when drawn nigh,
Spark flames of joy within the Emperors eye
As she leans on a railing in the garden
Where he hears winds of distant April sigh.
Comment On This Poem --- Vote for this poem
Songs of Pure Happiness (Translation-Chinese)
Songs of Pure Happiness (Translation-Chinese)
