Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

ODE.

Showing how the less is said the better (多言不如少言。

言不如無言。)

When wicked men the virtuous man revile

The virtuous man will hold his peace the while;

If he in turn reviles, 't is a confession

That he and they alike have no discretion.'

惡人罵善人。善人總不對。

善人若還罵。彼此無智慧。

ODE.

Showing the necessity of Reciprocity, elucidating the true functions of Friendship, and explaining one of the fundamental principles

of the Chinese Empire.

'When heaven sends rain earth turns to mire, each mortal slips and falls,

In struggling to regain his feet each mortal creeps and crawls;

If you expect your friends and kin to lend a hand to thee,

Repay each sip of wine with wine-each cup of tea with tea.'

天上下雨地下滑。各人栽倒各人爬。
要得親友拉一把。酒換酒來茶換茶。

ODE.

Showing the Facilis est descensus Averni.

'Whenever the Blind instruct the blind

The more is taught the less they think,

The Teacher slides down Hade's brink,

The obsequious Pupils close behind.'

懵懂勸懵懂。越勸越不醒。

師傅下地獄。徒弟後邊拱。

ODE.

Showing the advantages arising from getting back into one's Sphere.

[blocks in formation]

Showing the folly of unbounded Ambition.

'Ye mortals on this dusty earth, strive not to be the first,

For mingled with the best of men, are others who are worst;

I, too, once thought my foot could tread as yet untrodden ground,

I wot not that beyond the heavens, yet other heavens are found.'

人生紅塵休争先。好漢後有好漢奸。

常想我到無人到。那知天外還有天。

Every one is familiar with the perpetual observation of the Chinese, whenever any allusion is made to the 'Three Doctrines' of China, that after all they come to the same thing (-). The convenient ambiguity of Chinese characters admits, however, a somewhat more rational explanation of this formula, than that each of the sects is merely an allotropic aspect of the same fundamental thought. Every one of the three doctrines is based upon a Unity. In the Taoist formula, this is expressed in the words: - Embracing the original principle () and maintaining the unity,' where the last character refers to the chapter in the Book of Changes, beginning: 'Heaven is one, Earth is two' &c. (F). Among the Buddhists it is a common saying: The ten thousand precepts revert to one' (-). In the Confucian Analects, Confucius informs his disciples that his doctrine is that of an all pervading Unity (7 I − 9 ¤ 2). Since each of these great systems professes to be based upon a single character, and that the simplest in the language, how vast and far reaching must this symbol be! That it is so is a current formula among many of the countless Sects (P ), as in the following

ODE TO A STRAIGHT LINE (-).

Showing how, though it may perhaps be the shortest distance between two points, it is capable of being made as comprehensive as if it were a Polyhedron.

'O wide is the scope of the character I,
Deep and profound is its mystery;

Who dare attempt to define and explain it ?

All the Four Continents can not contain it;

Rare is the man and felicitous he

Who fathoms the depths of the character I,

Seated on Ling Shan's lofty peak

In the host of Immortals he dares to speak.'

一字大。一字大。四大部洲掛不下。
有人得了一字傳。靈山會上能說話。

LONGINGS FOR THE UNATTAINABLE.

Showing the importance of getting on the right side of a River

in the first place, and the hopelessness of trying to get around it when

it appears

that one is on the wrong side.

'Across the river an ingot of gold,

The river is deep, its waters wide;

That prize your hands will never hold
Because you are on the opposite side!'
隔河ㄧ錠金。河寬水又深。
空急不到手。枉費那塲心。

ODE.

Showing that a Balloon with a large Hole in the side, can not maintain the same position in the Air which it occupied before it sprung aleak.

'Your horses are white, their trappings bright, with tassels fresh and new,

Each guest pretends to be one of your friends, as he comes with high ado.

Death spirits away your horses gay; your riches fade from view;

When gold has sped, your friends have fled-a Nobody now are you!

白馬紅纓彩色新。不是親者强來親。

有朝馬死黃金盡。親戚如同陌路人。

THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN.'

Showing how Human Nature-especially that of Infants-rises superior to the trammels of Civilization, and (incidentally) exploding the statement of the Trimetrical Classic that at his origin everyone is

perfectly good.

'Ye gods in the Heavens! Ye powers on the Earth!

My Baby began from the hour of his birth,

With horrible screams to rend the night.

Oh! passing Stranger, these my rhymes

Read, I beg of you, through three times,

And then he will sleep till broad day light!'

天皇皇地皇皇。我家有个夜哭郎。
過往君子念三遍。一覺睡到大天亮。

ODE.

Showing how, though some Persons may be the worst in the world,

there are Others just as bad, if not worse.

'Unceasing Heavens! Laborious Earth!

Pray what is one's existence worth

Whose Daughter learned as soon as born

To cry all night till early morn?

Kind hearted mortal passing by,

Thrice on this stanza fix thine eye,

Thus shall our infant fall asleep

In somnolency sound and deep.'

天碌碌 地碌碌。我家有女夜間哭。

過往君子念三遍。小女一夜睡的熟。

ODE.

Exhorting to kind treatment of the Animate Creation in general [on the ground that since the Chinese have once acquired the habit of being transmigrated into Animals, one never knows which of them are to be one's future playmates, and can, moreover, never be certain that any particular Insect is not an allotropic form of one's Grandmother!]

Hook up the hanging door-screen,
Let the Swallow homeward hie,
And punch a hole in the lattice-work
For the sake of the Bluc-bottle Fly.

For lack of suitable nourishment

Let not the Rats decamp,

And pity the injudicious Moth

With a gauze-net round your lamp.'

鈎籐歸乳燕。穴牖放癡蠅。

為鼠盤留飯。憐蛾紗籠燈。

ODE.

Showing plainly, and yet beautifully, that there are two sides.

to some of the most obvious propositions, and explaining the vitality of Mormonism.

'For peace in one's domestic life

No treasure like an ugly wife,
While one most beautiful and fair

Will fill your days with grief and care.

But if abroad one shows her face

And mingles with the human race,

Why then, the truth must stand confessed

Your handsome face is still the best.'

醜是家中寶。俊人惹煩惱。

要得人前站。還是俊的好。

ODE ON WORSHIPPING AT THE GRAVES IN THE SPRING.

Showing the advantage of taking things when you can get them.

By Kao Chi Chien of the Sung Dynasty.

[The two last lines have become proverbial.]

'Along the hills from north to south the cemeteries reach,
Spring sweepings and libations come-confusion reigns in each;
The burning paper's floating ash is changed to Butterflies,

Where tears of blood have dyed the soil, the red Agaleas rise.

At sunset fairy Foxes come, and on the graves encamp,

While home we turn with Boys and Girls to laugh around the lamp

If living men but have the wine, they must get drunk, ween,

For how can a single drop descend to regions Subterrane ?'

清明節上墳。

宋人高菊磵作。

南北山頭多墓田。清明祭掃各粉然。
紙灰飛作白蝴蝶。血淚染成紅杜鵑。
日落狐狸眠塜上。夜歸兒女笑燈前。
人生有酒須當醉。一滴何會到九泉。

EXCELSIOR.

'The Sun is quenched by the Mountains high,

The Yellow River flows to the Sea;

Would you inspect a thousand li,

Climb one more flight and open your eye.

白日依山盡。黄河入海流。
欲窮千里目。更上一層樓。

The Emperor Tang T'ai Tsung (Chen Kuan⇓) inquired of Hsu Ching Tsung (H), “What do the people say about Our faults?" Ching Tsung replied: "The spring rain is like ointment, all

Nature rejoices in its enriching moisture; yet the travellers complain of the sticky mire. The harvest moon is like a mirror, the beautiful woman enjoys its delights; the thieves, however, are disgusted at its brilliancy. Since Heaven can not give perfect satisfaction, how much less can Man! Ching Tsung then continued, dropping (like Mr. Wegg) into poetry, the last line of which has become proverbial.

'Men's idle words 't is well to hear them not,
Or if thou hear them, let them be forgot;
For those that heed them, are thereby undone―
The Prince and his Advisers-Sire and Son-
And Wife and Husband breed a jealous heart,
While closest Friends are often wrenched apart;

Of many members in one body tall,

The Tongue is least, and yet the worst of all,

For in the Tongue there lurks a Dragon's den*

No blood is seen-and yet it murders men!'

"Quite true," remarked the Emperor.

唐太宗問於許敬宗日。人言的是非何如。敬宗對曰。春 雨如膏。萬物喜其潤澤。行人嫌其泥濘。秋月如鏡。佳人喜 其玩賞。盜賊 其光輝。天尙不足。何况人乎。又曰、 是非不可聽。聽之不可信。 君聽臣遭誅。父聽子遭殃。 夫婦聽之離。朋友聽之絕。 臣身六尺軀。隄防三寸舌。 舌上有龍泉。殺人不見血。 太宗曰然也。

The following Ode affords an excellent example of the way in which proverbs spring out of verses. The first two lines are essentially unquotable, while the two remaining ones are exactly adapted for every day popular use, which in fact they have attained in the south of China. In the north, however, where mulberry cultivation and silkworms are almost unknown, and where the crops are planted, instead of being transplanted, the last line is nearly always omitted.

RURAL ASPECTS OF THE FOURTH MOON.

'All verdure clad are hills and plains, the streams are brimming too,

And promise of a misty rain comes from the loud cuckoo.

The month of May has idlers few, abundant work it yields,

For when the mulberry silk is through, 't is time to plant the fields.'

綠遍山原白滿川。子規聲裏雨如烟。

鄉村四月閑人少。纔了蠶桑又插田。

The appended Ode is by Li Po () who was a Court favorite,

and naturally had at his command more money than he knew how to dispose of. The concluding line is a common proverb, but embodies a statement preposterously inexact. Whatever may have been true A poetical name for a Sword.

« AnkstesnisTęsti »