酷我-北美枫

[ericcoliu]

Reading, Writing, and Life on the Page


Dumpling Feast


Round table of communion

Old friends sit around --

Stoic faces conceal joy.


The steaming pot waits,

Dumplings are dropped in --

Echoes of lost time.


Note

Dumpling Feast is my contextualized reading of and literary response to Tu Fu's To Wie Pa, a Retired Scholar.


To Wei Pa, a Retired Scholar by Tu Fu, Translation by Kenneth Rexroth

The lives of many men are
Shorter than the years since we have
Seen each other. Aldebaran
And Antares move as we have.
And now, what night is this? We sit
Here together in the candle
Light. How much longer will our prime
Last? Our temples are already
Grey. I visit my old friends.
Half of them have become ghosts.
Fear and sorrow choke me and burn
My bowels. I never dreamed I would
Come this way, after twenty years,
A wayfarer to your parlor.
When we parted years ago,
You were unmarried. Now you have
A row of boys and girls, who smile
And ask me about my travels.
How have I reached this time and place?
Before I can come to the end
Of and endless tale, the children
Have brought out the wine. We go
Out in the night and cut young
Onions in the rainy darkness.
We eat them with hot, steaming,
Yellow millet. You say, “It is
Sad, meeting each other again.”
We drink ten toasts rapidly from
The rhinoceros horn cups.
Ten cups, and still we are not drunk.
We still love each other as
We did when we were schoolboys.
Tomorrow morning mountain peaks
Will come between us, and with them
The endless, oblivious
Business of the world.

"Tu Fu is, in my opinion, and in the opinion of a majority of those qualified to speak, the greatest non-epic, non-dramatic poet who has survived in any language…For me his response to the human situation is the only kind of religion likely to outlast this century"

-- Kenneth Rexroth
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Reading, Writing, and Life on the Page


Dumpling Feast


Round table of communion

Old friends sit around --

Stoic faces conceal joy.


The steaming pot waits,

Dumplings are dropped in --

Echoes of lost time.


Note

Dumpling Feast is my contextualized reading of and literary response to Tu Fu's To Wie Pa, a Retired Scholar.


To Wei Pa, a Retired Scholar by Tu Fu, Translation by Kenneth Rexroth

The lives of many men are
Shorter than the years since we have
Seen each other. Aldebaran
And Antares move as we have.
And now, what night is this? We sit
Here together in the candle
Light. How much longer will our prime
Last? Our temples are already
Grey. I visit my old friends.
Half of them have become ghosts.
Fear and sorrow choke me and burn
My bowels. I never dreamed I would
Come this way, after twenty years,
A wayfarer to your parlor.
When we parted years ago,
You were unmarried. Now you have
A row of boys and girls, who smile
And ask me about my travels.
How have I reached this time and place?
Before I can come to the end
Of and endless tale, the children
Have brought out the wine. We go
Out in the night and cut young
Onions in the rainy darkness.
We eat them with hot, steaming,
Yellow millet. You say, “It is
Sad, meeting each other again.”
We drink ten toasts rapidly from
The rhinoceros horn cups.
Ten cups, and still we are not drunk.
We still love each other as
We did when we were schoolboys.
Tomorrow morning mountain peaks
Will come between us, and with them
The endless, oblivious
Business of the world.

"Tu Fu is, in my opinion, and in the opinion of a majority of those qualified to speak, the greatest non-epic, non-dramatic poet who has survived in any language…For me his response to the human situation is the only kind of religion likely to outlast this century"

-- Kenneth Rexroth
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[ericcoliu]

贈衛八處士, 杜甫

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。
問答乃未已， 驅兒羅酒漿。
夜雨剪春韭， 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。
明日隔山岳， 世事兩茫茫。
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

贈衛八處士, 杜甫

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。
問答乃未已， 驅兒羅酒漿。
夜雨剪春韭， 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。
明日隔山岳， 世事兩茫茫。
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[Champagne]

[[Champagne]]

[Lake]

I'm always amazed by those who translate Chinese poetry without knowing much of the Chinese language. How could they do that? Do they translate directly from the original Chinese text or re-translate from a translated version?

Back to Dumpling Feast, reminds me of dumpling feast in Xi An. My mouth starts watering.

[[Lake]]

I'm always amazed by those who translate Chinese poetry without knowing much of the Chinese language. How could they do that? Do they translate directly from the original Chinese text or re-translate from a translated version?

Back to Dumpling Feast, reminds me of dumpling feast in Xi An. My mouth starts watering.

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]

[Lake]

[[Lake]]