人生不相見,
動如參與商。
今夕復何夕,
共此燈燭光。
少壯能幾時,
鬢髮各已蒼。
訪舊半為鬼,
驚呼熱中腸。
焉知二十載,
重上君子堂。
昔別君未婚,
兒女忽成行。
怡然敬父執,
問我來何方?
問答未及已,
驅兒羅酒漿。
夜雨翦春韭,
新炊間黃粱。
主稱會面難,
一舉累十觴。
十觴亦不醉,
感子故意長。
明日隔山嶽,
世事兩茫茫。
生而為人不是為了相見,
我們遷移就如天上兩極的星星。
如此一夜,到今晚
我們可以分享這一片燈光?
青年的歲月能夠一路到甚麼時候?
我們已經白頭,
探問舊朋友,一半成為鬼魂;
難以置信的吶喊穿越心口
誰想到,二十年了
我再一次走進你的家,
離開時你還未結婚;
如今已是有兒有女。
他們對我問好,
問我來自甚麼地方。
我還未說完,
你已叫你的兒子預備酒和晚餐,
夜雨剪碎春天的韭蔥,
煮好的飯混和黃米
你說相遇實在太難,
飲了十杯還要再喝。
我還未醉倒,
此刻你不變的友愛打動我
明日山與路會分開我們, 無窮無盡的人世再次在我們之間。
Life, it’s not about getting together;
we move like a couple of stars at opposite ends of the sky.
On a night like this, when dark comes,
can we share the light?
How long was that road, the one we took when we were young?
Our hair is white;
asking after old friends, half of them long gone,
a yell of disbelief grabs me right in the heart.
Who knew, twenty years later
I would walk into your house again?
Back then you weren’t married;
now you have kids, plural.
Polite, they talk to me,
Ask where I’m coming from.
I’m not done having my say
when you tell your sons to bring food and beer,
spring greens picked in the rainy night,
mixed-grain bread, local, healthy fare.
You say getting together is just too hard,
We’ve downed ten beers and crack another.
I’m not drunk yet,
but I know what you mean:
Tomorrow we’ll say goodbye again,
the world between my road and your mountain.
“Presented to Wei Ba, Gentleman in Retirement” is from the Selected Poems of Du Fu, translated by Burton Watson (Columbia University Press, 2003), pg 51
Mary King Bradley: It should be noted that Watson’s translation of Du Fu’s poem could also be considered somewhat “unfaithful.” Watson followed the general premise that it’s best to translate for the intended audience rather than for some notion of what is due to the original in that a great deal of the Chinese poem’s form and layered meaning is inevitably lost when translating it into English. In the introduction to his book Chinese Lyricism: Shih Poetry from the Second to the Twelfth Century, Watson states, “The good translator, it seems to me, no matter how he may project himself back in time in order to understand the ideas and sentiments of his author, must, when it comes to getting the words over into another language, proceed as though he himself were the author, writing the work afresh today.” This is the premise Matthew and I followed, with elements of modern Cantonese and contemporary American culture sneaking into our translations, Watson’s version serving as our starting point. Matthew first translated Watson’s poem into Chinese. I then translated Matthew’s version into English, ultimately taking it a step further by writing a final version of the poem as prose (see next page).