Category: Drinking

木兰花   Magnolia Flower

晏殊      (Author: Yan Shu, 11th century)

燕鸿过后莺归去， swallow geese pass after orioles return go
细算浮生千万绪。 careful calculation uncertain life thousand ten thousand thread
长于春梦几多时？ long compare spring dream several many time
散似秋云无觅处。 scatter similar to autumn wind no find place
闻琴解佩神仙侣， hear zither untie wear deity immortal couple
挽断罗衣留不住。 pull break silk clothes can’t stop leaving
劝君莫作独醒人， advise you not be along awake person
烂醉花间应有数。 exhausted drunk flower among should have count/number

 

Translation:

The swallows and the geese have left,
And now the orioles are gone too.
It is so hard to understand this drifting life
With its thousand, ten thousand threads of meaning.

Was my past any longer than a spring-time dream?
It scattered like the autumn clouds. No place to find it.

Hear the zither, untie the goddess’ jewel.
I could clutch her silk clothes until they tore
But I still can’t stop time.

I advise you not to be the only one awake.
Join the rest of us — and drink to oblivion among the flowers.

 

Translation Notes:

This poem was written by Yan Shu, who was a poet and politician during the Northern Song Dynasty. He was considered a child prodigy, and passed the imperial exam when he was only 14. He rose to high-ranking posts at the court and once served as prime minister to Emperor Renzong. The content of this poem seems to suggest that the poet is lamenting the passage of time and the inevitable parting of lovers. However, this poem was written during a time when the emperor, who was not decisive in character, took advice from Yan Shu’s political rivals, and banished a couple of Yan Shu’s political allies. Considering the time when this poem was written, it is probably a reflection of Yan’s disappointment over the political environment at that time.

The fifth line refers to two Chinese legends. One is about Zhuo Wenjun, a female poet who lived in the Han Dynasty. She heard Sima Xiangru playing the zither when he was a guest at her parents’ home, and she eloped with him afterwards. The second one is about a man who encountered two female deities who untied their jewels and gave them to the man, only to find that both the jewels and the deities disappeared afterwards. In the sixth line, the poem is not specific as to what the poet wishes to stop, but in the context of the first four lines, we thought that “time” probably best expressed his intent. Many Chinese literary critics, however, believe that the sixth line references only the inevitable parting of these idealized lovers.

遣怀   Dispelling Sorrow

杜牧   (Author: Du Mu, 9th century)

落魄江南载酒行， fall soul river south carry wine walk
楚腰肠断掌中轻。 Chu waist intestinal break palm inside light
十年一觉扬州梦， ten years one sleep Yangzhou dream
赢得青楼薄幸名。 win get blue building light favor reputation

 

Translation:

I grew so downhearted in the Southern Land,
Wandering with a bottle of wine

And breaking my heart over those slim waisted Chu girls
The ones who could dance in the palm of your hand

Ten years later I wake from my dream of Yang Zhou

And all I’ve won for myself is the reputation
Of a man who can’t be trusted in Blue Buildings

 

Translation Note:

Du Mu was a famous poet of the Late Tang Dynasty, best known for writing lyrical and romantic poems. He and another famous poet of the Late Tang Dynasty — Li Shangyin, were often mentioned together by later Chinese literary critics as “Little Li-Du”, to differentiate them from the “Li-Du” during the most prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty, that is, Li Bai and Du Fu.

Du Mu was born into an elite family, and held various provincial posts in different locales over his career. However, he never achieved a high-ranking position in court, and this poem is considered one of those which he implicitly showed his disappointment over his government career. The first line of the poem implies a dark note of despair as Du Mu clearly indicates that his soul “falls down” when he was at the South of the River. The second line refers to two Chinese legends. One is about the King of Chu favoring girls of slim waists. In elite circles, slender female bodies were so admired that some palace girls even starved to death when trying to lose weight. The second one is about Zhao Feiyan, a famous beauty who was so slim that she could dance on a man’s palm. These legends were used to demonstrate the beauty and slenderness of the prostitutes in the blue buildings in Yangzhou with whom Du Mu has spent time. However, when Du Mu looked back, he was regretful of his time spent in Yangzhou, which is reflected by the third and fourth line of the poem.

饮酒      Drinking Wine

陶渊明  (Author: Tao Yuanming, 4th century)

结庐在人境， Build hut at man place
而无车马喧。 But no carriage horse noise
问君何能尔？ Ask you possible can like this
心远地自偏。 heart far place naturally remote
采菊东篱下， pick chrysanthemum east fence under
悠然见南山。 far leisurely see south mountain
山气日夕佳， mountain air sun set lovely
飞鸟相与还。 fly bird each other and return
此中有真意， this inside have true meaning
欲辨已忘言。 want explain already lost words

 

Translation:

I built my hut in a world of men,
But there’s no sound of carriages and horses.

You ask me how this is possible.
When the heart is far away, surroundings become remote.

I pick chrysanthemums by the east fence,
And idly gaze at the southern mountain.

The mountain air is so beautiful at sunset,
As the birds fly home together.

There’s true meaning in this.
I want to explain, but I’ve already forgotten the words.

 

Translation Notes:

Tao Yuanming is sometimes considered the father of Fields and Gardens poetry, a literature that celebrates contemplative life outside the city walls. Certainly, this poem exemplifies the Field and Garden style. It is set not in the wilderness, but in “the world of men,” yet its subject is natural beauty and contemplation. Much Fields and Gardens poetry is Taoist, and at least one translator has gone so far as to translate the penultimate line as: “Within this natural scene lies the artistic mood necessary for creation, and the real meaning of the Dao.” https://www.learnancientchinesepoetry.org/2016/09/11/tao-yuanming-drinking-wine-no-5/

We translate poetry much more literally than this, but we agree that this line of translation sums up much of the spirit of this poem and of Field and Garden poetry generally. The meaning reflected in the last couplet is very similar to the last couplet of “Painted Zither,” which we have also translated. Both couplets point to the ineffable nature of life.

曲江 The Qu River

作者：杜甫 （Author: Du Fu, 8th century)

朝回日日典春衣， court return day day pawn spring clothes
每日江头尽醉归。 Everyday river head exhaust drunk return
酒债寻常行处有， wine debt common go place have
人生七十古来稀。 people life seventy ancient come rare
穿花蛱蝶深深见， to cross flower butterfly deep deep see
点水蜻蜓款款飞。 skim water dragonfly slowly slowly fly
传语风光共流转， pass along words wind light together flow turn
暂时相赏莫相违. temporary each other appreciate no each other parting

 

Translation: 

Every day I return from court and pawn my spring robes,
And every day, I get so drunk by the river head before going home

Wherever I go, I owe money for wine.
Since ancient times, few people have lived to the age of seventy.

Deep in the flowers, a wandering butterfly appears.
Skimming the water, a dragonfly slowly glides.

Tell these beautiful scenes that we could all be one, roaming together
For a while, enjoying each other’s company without parting.

 

Translation notes:

Our translation of this poem begins rather brutally with the poet pawning his robes and getting drunk by the river every day. It is possible to translate words five and six of the second line differently. Out of context, they could mean “tipsy,” or “drinking my limit,” and others have translated them this way. We believe that “drinking” and “end” mean getting pretty thoroughly drunk here, and that there is a dark note of despair in what otherwise could be a rather typical Chinese poem about having some wine and communing with nature. Other drinking and nature poems do have an element of sadness, of having turned away from a more active style of living. They have also incorporated the idea of not having any money, but they’ve generally done so by painting an almost enviable picture of rustic simplicity, e.g. a humble thatched hut, a small garden, a drink shared with a neighbor. They are often suffused with a Taoist or Buddhist ideal of stillness and contemplation.

Du Fu was a Confucian and was very much concerned with right behavior. In Qu River, we see an urban man pawning his robes and seeing his creditors everywhere. He seems very alone though he works at the seat of power. Du Fu also notes that few people have ever lived to the age of seventy, in other words he doesn’t expect that he will live a long life. He spends the first half of the poem saying nothing about nature other than referencing the river and telling us that he is in debt, that he drinks daily, that he doesn’t expect to live to the 70s, and that he still works for the court. This is not a contemplative or idyllic opening.

The second half of the poem is a more typical work about drinking and longing to be one with the beauty of the natural world, but we note that Du Fu emphasizes the transitory quality of these moments and of the world around him. There is no mention of mountains, the moon, a tall pine, or other more enduring natural sights, only delicate butterflies and dragonflies. Du Fu hopes to join with them “for a while,” implying that he doesn’t expect to enjoy such beauty for long. At the time of writing Qu River, Du Fu was serving as a low-ranking advisor to Emperor Suzong and probably knew that he would soon be banished from the court.

The cause of the banishment was Du Fu’s loyalty to his friend and patron, Fang Guan. Fang Guan had been a chancellor to Suzong’s father, who was known as the Bright Emperor. During the An Lushan rebellion, the Bright Emperor escaped from Chang’An, and Suzong, who was the crown prince, declared himself the new emperor not long after. The Bright Emperor sent Fang Guan to recognize Suzong as the new emperor and to give his son the imperial seal. The new emperor was initially pleased with Fang’s arrival and offered him a senior position at court. However, it was later revealed that Fang Guan, while he was the chancellor to the Bright Emperor, advised the Bright Emperor to have Suzong share military commands with several of his brothers, each acting independently from each other and in different geographical territories. Suspicious of Fang’s loyalty to him, the new emperor stripped Fang Guan of much of his power. Du Fu then revealed himself to be either a very good Confucian or a very poor politician (or both) when he protested Fang’s demotion. After Du Fu’s protest, the new emperor grew concerned that Du Fu was inappropriately loyal to Fang, and he ordered the judicial system to interrogate him. This was a fairly unusual step to take given that Du’s ranking was very low as a government official. The result of the interrogation was that Du Fu was cleared of all criminal suspicions and pardoned by the emperor, but he was “banished” in the sense of being reassigned to a more provincial post.

作者：王昌龄  （Author: Wang Changling, 8th century)

 

昨 夜 風 開 露 井 桃    last night wind open dew well peach
未 央 前 殿 月 輪 高    not  central  front palace moon wheel high
平 陽 歌 舞 新 承 寵    Ping Yang (title) sing dance new receive favor
簾 外 春 寒 賜 錦 袍    curtain outside spring cold give brocade robe

 

Translation:

Last night the wind blew, and the peach trees —
The ones beside the open well — began to blossom.
That’s when the moon rose like a great wheel
High above the Weiyang palace.

Oh, how she danced and sang,
Behind the beaded curtain.
She won new favor from the emperor
A brocade robe for the cold spring air.

Translation Notes:

This was a difficult poem to translate, despite the fact that it’s composed of very concrete images and actions. We had to expand the four lines to eight in order to explain what was happening, and we still omitted a few things. The poem tells us in which of the buildings in the palace complex the actions take place (the front one), but this seemed like a meaningless and clumsy detail in English.  In the original, the wind causes the flowers to open. This 8th century concept of how the seasons change makes little sense to a 21st century reader, and trying to explain it within the context of this poem seemed unnecessarily awkward. We merely implied that the wind could have caused the flowers to blossom with the sequence of events. In doing so, however, we may have also omitted the sense of the wind as a mighty presence that creates a feminine response of flowering in a way that foreshadows the emperor in the second half of the poem. Whether it is taken as a delicate foreshadowing of the sexuality of the next stanza or not, it is important that the masculine, yang wind is juxtaposed with the feminine, yin flowers to create a sense of a full and balanced world.

In the second verse, the dancer is referred to as “she” which we considered more intimate than “the dancer.”  Some translators have assumed that the dancer was the princess herself, but this assumption is incorrect. The dancer referred to in this poem is Wei Zifu, who was working as a palace singer and dancer on Princess Pingyang’s estate. Princess Pingyang was a Western Han Dynasty princess and one of the Emperor Wu of Han’s sisters. We were able to figure out the era of the story through the palace name in the second line — Weiyang Palace which was the main imperial residence of the Han dynasty.  In 139 BC, Emperor Wu of Han paid a visit to his sister Princess Pingyang’s estate.  The princess called in Wei Zifu to dance for the emperor as an entertainment.  As a beautiful young girl talented in singing and dancing, Wei Zifu managed to catch the eye of the emperor.  After that visit, the emperor took Wei Zifu back to his palace as a concubine. Ten years later, following the emperor’s divorce with his empress Chen Jiao, Wei Zifu gave birth to the emperor’s first son and was then made empress.  

作者：李白  （Author: Li Bai, 8th century)

蒲萄酒，grape wine
金叵罗，gold wine cup
吴姬十五细马驮。Wu (south, near shanghai) young girl 15 thin horse carry on horseback
青黛画眉红锦靴，green black dye decorate eyebrow red brocade shoes/boots
道字不正娇唱歌。talk word not straight, upright tender sing song
玳瑁筵中怀里醉，gemstone tortoise shell feast in bosom inside drunk
芙蓉帐底奈君何!   lotus bed curtain inside helpless you how (question word) 

Translation: 

A golden cup
Holds wine made from grapes.
And a little horse carries
A Wu nation beauty
Just 15 years old.

Her eyebrows are dyed green/black.
Her boots are red brocade.
Her dialect is hard to understand,
But her singing is so tender.

We feasted on fine tables
Inlaid with tortoise shell
And she grew drunk within my arms.
Now she is helpless inside the lotus bed curtains.
Little Miss, whatever should I do with you?

 

Translation Notes

The term “grape wine,” which might seem redundant to a Westerner, signifies an exotic, foreign wine made from grapes rather than the Chinese wines made from more readily available domestic crops. The entire poem bespeaks sophistication and luxury. A tortoise shell feast is an extravagant feast, and a beautiful girl dressed in finery is an expensive purchase. A Wu nation beauty who speaks with an accent is a girl from the south who, though Chinese, would be exotic to Li Bai. From the context of the poem, it is likely that the young girl is a courtesan or singing girl that has been entertaining guests (including Li Bai) during the feast. Like the grape wine, she is a testament to his ability to sample rare and fine pleasures. 

The word “helpless” in the penultimate line might possibly refer to the poet himself, but two considerations militate against this reading. The first is that the Chinese of this period did not have a tradition of chivalry in which it was fashionable for a man to at least pretend that he was helpless before a woman’s beauty. The second is the fact that Li Bai has spent almost all of the poem flaunting his sophistication and good fortune. It is extremely unlikely that a young man who has just been bragging about drinking grape wine and enjoying a tortoise shell feast would then admit to not knowing what to do with a young girl. In the final line, the address that we have translated as “Little Miss” is normally used as a serious term of respect, often toward other men. In this context, we took it as ironic.