Du Mu’s Poem “Shen Xiaxian”
沈下贤
杜牧
斯人清唱何人和，草径苔芜不可寻。
一夕小敷山下梦，水如环珮月如襟。
Word-by-word Exegesis 逐字注解
沈Shen 下贤Xiaxian
There is no title to the name, which shows that this person had not any official affiliation.
斯this 人man 清clear 唱sing 何who 人man 和join in the chorus or reply a poem
草grass 径path 苔moss 芜weeds 不no 可able 寻search, find
一one 夕night, dusk 小little 敷Fu 山mount 下below 梦dream
水water 如alike 环circular 珮jade pendant 月moon 如alike 襟frontal piece of a garment
Translation 翻译
Shen Xiaxian
by DU Mu (803-852 Late Tang Dynasty)
For this man’s unaffected voice, who can ever play a chord?
Amid the mossy paths beneath weeds, no trace of him can be found.
One night by the Little Fu mountainside may accommodate many a dream,
And water encircles like a jade pendant, and the moon is shining on your bosom.
I did not read this poem before, for this is not an often anthologized poem of Du Mu’s massive poetry. Today, I opened his annotated poetry, and read for about ten minutes before coming across this one. I was immediately fascinated by it.
I acknowledge my ignorance of the addressee Shen Xiaxian in the title, and the annotation does not tell much, except that he was a Confucian scholar and passed an imperial examination in 815 AD (and this is mot impressive as almost every such a scholar had passed a certain degree of examination). The annotation did not even mention whether he had obtained any official position, and this most probably means that he had not. However, I did find some information about him. He was especially noted for “fabulous stories” (as in Chinese term, “legendary story” refers to the fabulous, the supernatural, the romantic, which is generally about the affairs between the ghosts or animal-incarnated spirits and the human). No wonder he was especially admired by another late Tang poet Li Ho, who has been one of my favorites too.
This poem was written in 850 when Du Mu went to Huzhou Prefecture (Lake Prefecture) as its top official. By then, Shen could not have been dead for very long, as he passed the imperial exam in 815. The poem started with the poet’s visit to Shen’s ruined residence or rather his search for the remains, and he found that nothing was left. When the poet referred to Shen as “this man,” he was actually calling him “you” as if Shen was in front of him. The next phrase “unaffected voice” (clear singing) was referring to his stories. Therefore, “this man” was modified to refer to the man in the stories, and Du Mu read Shen’s work and found enough affinity with him to call him “you” when he went to visit Shen’s old residence. The sight at the site brought Du to a psychological presence, and this could be a good example of literary affinity or appreciation. Then, he lamented at the sight of the deserted place, because there were obviously no admirers around. Otherwise, the place could not be deserted like this. The second line further confirms that no one was worthy of his company.
Perhaps he lingered there for some time, maybe for the night. Then he could see the Little Fu Mount at the dusk, and imagined a scene comparable to what Shen evoked in his mind. I do not want to overuse the objective-correlative stuff to interpret Chinese poetry, for there is a fundamental problem here. No one can be sure about the subject in the last two lines: whether it was the poet who was dreaming by the foothill or was he imagining that the spirit of Shen was still living around? The former interpretation will mean that this is basically a direct expression of the poet, while the latter will mean both. When the poet Du could not find any trace left of Shen, he would conjure his spirit as he understood from his work. Again, the last line became perfect illustration of his plain clear limpid song.
There is a saying from an ancient philosopher that one night accommodates many lives and deaths, and this poem obviously alludes to this. The moon shines clear as if the frontal of the garment, which means that the person’s heart is clear like the moonlight, cool and pure.
从未读过这首诗，今天拿出《樊川诗集注》就这么翻阅着，十多分钟之后翻到了这首诗，立即被迷住了。我不知道这个沈下贤是谁，看注释也没说出什么来，后来查了一下资料知道这位在当时写了不少别具一格的传奇故事，可惜我比较无知。他在815年（元和十年，呵呵，我从不记得这些纪年方式）登进士第，而一个名字没有任何职位的称呼，说明这个沈下贤似乎没有做过官。
这首诗写于850年，当时杜牧去湖州任刺史，而这位沈下贤就是当地人，李商隐、李贺都写过有关他的诗。按说，沈下贤应该是死去不久，毕竟他在815年在考取进士。诗歌第一句感时，说斯人，简直就说你犹在眼前才是，说清唱，则是因为他的文章，于是斯人就成了文字中的斯人，也就是说我看你的文字，犹如见人；这才是能文者之间的情谊和理解。杜牧到了现场，眼中所见，一片荒芜，于是第二句进一步佐证了第一句中的“何人和”？于是凭吊也好，不忍去也好，他似乎在那儿呆到了晚上。
我们不需要用艾略特所谓的“客观对应物”来解读中国古诗，因为这里最基本的问题是，我们无法确定后两句的主语到底是谁。是否杜牧在山下流连，还是他因为读了沈下贤的传奇，所以似乎感到沈下贤的灵魂还在此处逡巡？如说是前者，那么这就是抒情诗，说的是我看到山水，看到月色，想着你就是如此的真纯。如果是后者，那么也同样令人感到一种泠泠的气质。这或许和沈的传奇气质相似。但是无论如何，这空灵的两行将怀人和此人的气质写到很到位。
I acknowledge my ignorance of the addressee Shen Xiaxian in the title, and the annotation does not tell much, except that he was a Confucian scholar and passed an imperial examination in 815 AD (and this is mot impressive as almost every such a scholar had passed a certain degree of examination). The annotation did not even mention whether he had obtained any official position, and this most probably means that he had not. However, I did find some information about him. He was especially noted for “fabulous stories” (as in Chinese term, “legendary story” refers to the fabulous, the supernatural, the romantic, which is generally about the affairs between the ghosts or animal-incarnated spirits and the human). No wonder he was especially admired by another late Tang poet Li Ho, who has been one of my favorites too.
This poem was written in 850 when Du Mu went to Huzhou Prefecture (Lake Prefecture) as its top official. By then, Shen could not have been dead for very long, as he passed the imperial exam in 815. The poem started with the poet’s visit to Shen’s ruined residence or rather his search for the remains, and he found that nothing was left. When the poet referred to Shen as “this man,” he was actually calling him “you” as if Shen was in front of him. The next phrase “unaffected voice” (clear singing) was referring to his stories. Therefore, “this man” was modified to refer to the man in the stories, and Du Mu read Shen’s work and found enough affinity with him to call him “you” when he went to visit Shen’s old residence. The sight at the site brought Du to a psychological presence, and this could be a good example of literary affinity or appreciation. Then, he lamented at the sight of the deserted place, because there were obviously no admirers around. Otherwise, the place could not be deserted like this. The second line further confirms that no one was worthy of his company.
Perhaps he lingered there for some time, maybe for the night. Then he could see the Little Fu Mount at the dusk, and imagined a scene comparable to what Shen evoked in his mind. I do not want to overuse the objective-correlative stuff to interpret Chinese poetry, for there is a fundamental problem here. No one can be sure about the subject in the last two lines: whether it was the poet who was dreaming by the foothill or was he imagining that the spirit of Shen was still living around? The former interpretation will mean that this is basically a direct expression of the poet, while the latter will mean both. When the poet Du could not find any trace left of Shen, he would conjure his spirit as he understood from his work. Again, the last line became perfect illustration of his plain clear limpid song.
There is a saying from an ancient philosopher that one night accommodates many lives and deaths, and this poem obviously alludes to this. The moon shines clear as if the frontal of the garment, which means that the person’s heart is clear like the moonlight, cool and pure.
从未读过这首诗，今天拿出《樊川诗集注》就这么翻阅着，十多分钟之后翻到了这首诗，立即被迷住了。我不知道这个沈下贤是谁，看注释也没说出什么来，后来查了一下资料知道这位在当时写了不少别具一格的传奇故事，可惜我比较无知。他在815年（元和十年，呵呵，我从不记得这些纪年方式）登进士第，而一个名字没有任何职位的称呼，说明这个沈下贤似乎没有做过官。
这首诗写于850年，当时杜牧去湖州任刺史，而这位沈下贤就是当地人，李商隐、李贺都写过有关他的诗。按说，沈下贤应该是死去不久，毕竟他在815年在考取进士。诗歌第一句感时，说斯人，简直就说你犹在眼前才是，说清唱，则是因为他的文章，于是斯人就成了文字中的斯人，也就是说我看你的文字，犹如见人；这才是能文者之间的情谊和理解。杜牧到了现场，眼中所见，一片荒芜，于是第二句进一步佐证了第一句中的“何人和”？于是凭吊也好，不忍去也好，他似乎在那儿呆到了晚上。
我们不需要用艾略特所谓的“客观对应物”来解读中国古诗，因为这里最基本的问题是，我们无法确定后两句的主语到底是谁。是否杜牧在山下流连，还是他因为读了沈下贤的传奇，所以似乎感到沈下贤的灵魂还在此处逡巡？如说是前者，那么这就是抒情诗，说的是我看到山水，看到月色，想着你就是如此的真纯。如果是后者，那么也同样令人感到一种泠泠的气质。这或许和沈的传奇气质相似。但是无论如何，这空灵的两行将怀人和此人的气质写到很到位。
Back-Translation into Contemporary Chinese 现代汉语回译
沈下贤
这样的人，毫不矫作的声音，有谁能为他弹奏和弦？
在这杂草下布满绿苔的小径之间，找不到他的任何迹象。
在这小敷山下，一夜就能接待许多场梦，
而水环绕着，像玉佩，月亮在你的胸襟闪亮。
No comments:
Post a Comment