/lit/ - Literature

bump for interest

>>10290938
I don't know of a good translation myself, so take some poems for your thread, OP. My friend showed them to me and said that they are good poems that the educated of China know. Each of the two has a newer version for easier understanding.

人有悲欢离合,月有阴晴圆缺,此事古难全。但愿人长久,千里共婵娟
modern revision: (人有悲欢离合的变迁,月有阴晴圆缺的转换,这种事自古来难以周全。只希望这世上所有人的亲人能平安健康,即便相隔千里,也能共享这美好的月光)

阳春布德泽,万物生光辉。
常恐秋节至,焜黄华叶衰。
modern revision: (春天把希望洒满了大地,万物都呈现出一派繁荣。
常恐那肃杀的秋天来到,树叶儿黄落百草也凋零。)

>>10291295
Th-thanks

This one is quite fun, I really think it could have been made by one of you.
THE ORPHAN

Anon. (first century b.c.)
To be an orphan,
To be fated to be an orphan.
How bitter is this lot!
When my father and mother were alive
I used to ride in a carriage[28]
With four fine horses.
But when they both died,
My brother and sister-in-law
Sent me out to be a merchant.
In the south I travelled to the “Nine Rivers”
And in the east as far as Ch’i and Lu.
At the end of the year when I came home
I dared not tell them what I had suffered—
Of the lice and vermin in my head,
Of the dust in my face and eyes.
My brother told me to get ready the dinner.
My sister-in-law told me to see after the horses.
I was always going up into the hall
And running down again to the parlour.
My tears fell like rain.
In the morning they sent me to draw water,
I didn’t get back till night-fall.
My hands were all sore
And I had no shoes.
I walked the cold earth
Treading on thorns and brambles.
As I stopped to pull out the thorns,
How bitter my heart was!
My tears fell and fell
And I went on sobbing and sobbing.
In winter I have no great-coat;
Nor in summer, thin clothes.
It is no pleasure to be alive.
I had rather quickly leave the earth[29]
And go beneath the Yellow Springs.[4]
The April winds blow
And the grass is growing green.
In the third month—silkworms and mulberries,
In the sixth month—the melon-harvest.
I went out with the melon-cart
And just as I was coming home
The melon-cart turned over.
The people who came to help me were few,
But the people who ate the melons were many,
All they left me was the stalks—
To take home as fast as I could.
My brother and sister-in-law were harsh,
They asked me all sorts of awful questions.
Why does everyone in the village hate me?
I want to write a letter and send it
To my mother and father under the earth,
And tell them I can’t go on any longer
Living with my brother and sister-in-law.
[4] Hades.

>>10290938
I haven't actually read them, but both Ezra Pound and Arthur Waley did translations and they're probably the best. Pound would be more a free interpretation, Waley closer to the original.

>>10290938
That's a big fish

>>10291716
>I haven't actually read them,
Stop there, m8.

James Legge did the full lot, though his version might be too Victorian for modern sensibilities.

>>10291764
For you

>>10291716
Pound didn't even know chinese, for God's sake.

>>10291815
He did good poems based on the Chinese as explained to him by... whoever it was, though.

呱呱雎鸠
在河之洲
窈窕淑女
君子好求

Then something about weeds

>>10291864
>something something something something
>zai something something something
>something something nu
>something zi hao something
These Chinese lessons are paying off.

>>10292100
Don't feel bad, it's a 2500+ year old poem (though the language is very simple). 千里之行始于足下

Also it should have been 关, not 呱. Silly me.

>>10291416

>>10291416
JUST