Su Shih's Love Song "Ten Years of Life and Death"
苏轼的情歌“十年生死”
To the Tune of Riverside Town
“Ten Years of Life and Death”
Su Shih (1037-1101 Song Dynasty)
Ten years. Dead and living. Unfathomably apart.
Never have I tried to recall, but forever in mind.
Thousand miles away lies your grave lonely,
No way to tell the desolate heart.
Even if you came around, you would not believe your eyes
At a face full of dust and a head of frost white.
Last night a dream dropped me at our old home,
Finding you doing hair by the window in the inner room.
Our eyes fixed at each other,
Words failing us, but tears dashing along.
Year after year that bowel-breaking spot recurs in my vision—
The dwarf pine ridge, in a moon-washed night.
江城子
[宋] 苏轼
十年生死两茫茫，
不思量，自难忘。
千里孤坟，无处话凄凉。
纵使相逢应不识，
尘满面，鬓如霜。
夜来幽梦忽还乡，
小轩窗，正梳妆。
相顾无言，惟有泪千行。
料得年年肠断处，
明月夜，短松冈。
Word-by-word exegesis 逐字注解
江River城City子a diminutive, a song
苏轼SU Shih
十ten 年year 生living 死dead 两two 茫茫vast, at a loss
不no 思think量weigh自itself难hard忘forget
千thousand里half-kilometer 孤lonely坟grave
无no 处place 话talk凄desolate凉cold
纵even使if相逢meet each other应should不no识recognize
尘dust满full面face 鬓sideburns如like霜frost
夜night来come幽secret梦dream忽suddenly还return乡hometown
小small轩small room窗window正at the process of梳comb妆make up
相顾look at each other无no言words
惟only有have泪tear千thousand行line
料得imagine年year年year肠bowels断break处place
明bright月moon夜night短short松pine冈ridge
My reading note: Naming and Being There
This is one of the most famous elegies in classical Chinese poetry, and this song was specially loved as a genuine expression of the author’s love toward his first wife. In this sense, this poem is most marred by the biographical fallacy.
Perhaps it is a Chinese tradition of interpreting poems in terms of the biography. We are told that SU wrote this poem when he was somewhere about a thousand miles (a Chinese mile is half a kilometer) ten years after his first wife’s death. Of course, the thousand and the ten are approximate numbers.
A poem like this, I believe, derives its power from a state of “not being here,” and this state of mind is pervasive in almost all the occasions of longing for someone or something. The misfit or being at odds with the present is one of the most important aspects for this type of poetry, and the anxiety over the presence is essential for the justification of nostalgia or melancholia. Dream is often used to express the escape from the present or transplacement of the body. In the dream, imagination and wish are mingled, and the body absent from the site becomes present in sight. In the process, naming becomes the most important and powerful act. Naming is a way of using words, but by naming the place the body in dream is sent to the place. Naming becomes a way of being there, a way of presence.
阅读小札：命名与身在彼处
一直觉得这首词是最受到传记谬误的影响的，也就是说人们总是将这首词读成一种传记，感动于这首词中被视为作者的真实情感。于是，我们就有人考据是否作者写作之地和前妻安葬之地之间是否是千里，那前妻是否死于十年之前，而且这种“不思量自难忘”的程度又在多大程度上影响了作者的情感生活呢？据我所知，此刻他最宠爱的当然是一个叫做朝云的小妾，可是这又与他此词中的情感有何关系呢？
这首词之所以动人，并不在于是否是作者的亲身经历，而在于该词是否具有某种普遍的情感呼吁和真诚。此次开始的“两茫茫”实际上暗示了一种无法诉说，因此这首词看似对那个具体的“你”诉说，实质是对普遍的“你们”诉说。“两茫茫”实质预设了这首词只能是从“我”到读者的交流，也就是说这首词是一个自我封闭的情感载体，那么读者在阅读的时候便可以占为己有。
这首词对打动我的正是其“不在此处”的状态，这种状态可说是所有怀人思远的根源。与此时此刻的难以谐和是人们之所以焦虑的主要原因。而梦幻则是舒解这种焦虑的手段之一，在梦中人们不仅逃离了身体的束缚，而且还被带离了焦虑的现场。当我们醒来，该如何面对梦幻呢？我们用语言再现梦幻，而语言再现就是用语言超度我们。当我们将梦中的场景交付给一个名词，这种命名就是超度心灵，使得我们在阅读中又如身体也被传输到了那个场景。“明月夜，短松冈”。这是对令人难以面对的场地，因为这个地点名称就是力量的所在。
汉学家华岑的翻译Burton Watson’s translation:
Ten years, dead and living dim and draw apart.
I don't try to remember,
But forgetting is hard.
Lonely grave a thousand miles off,
Cold thoughts, where can I talk them out?
Even if we met, you wouldn't know me,
Dust on my face,
Hair like frost.
In a dream last night suddenly I was home.
By the window of the little room,
You were combing your hair and making up.
You turned and looked, not speaking,
Only lines of tears coursing down.
Year after year will it break my heart?
The moonlit grave,
The stubby pines.
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