Monday, July 11, 2016

A Bird Returns Home (T'ao Yuan-ming - parts 1 and 2)

These are the first two parts of a four part poem I translated this morning by T'ao Yuan-ming.  For those of you unfamiliar with his work, T'ao is a precursor of the Tang poets, dating to the Six Dynasties period, with official dates given as 365-427 AD.  Known as the Hermit Poet, this series of poems is generally understood to be autobiographical inasmuch as T'ao was the first of the great Chinese poets who kicked over the traces of a career in the Imperial bureaucracy in favor of a return to his rural farmstead, with the bird returning home meant to be a stand-in for the poet himself.


Part One

Folding its wings
A bird returns home  
After flying off at dawn
Into the woods
Far away it pursued
Eight different routes
Resting near a cloudy peak
Until the breeze made
It uneasy and it flapped
Its wings again
Elsewhere seeking
Its heart’s content
Attending to the cry
Of other birds nearby
It then withdrew
To the shelter
Of a shady spot

 其一

翼翼归鸟
晨去于林
远之八表
近憩云岑
和风不洽
翻翮求心
顾俦相鸣
景庇清阴



Part Two

Folding its wings
A bird returns home
How high it had soared
How far it had flown
Although not naturally
Inclined to wandering
Seeing the forest
It felt fettered
Encountering clouds
It climbed and descended
Until the cry of other birds
Made it return home
Abandoning the road
In preference for leisure and
The pursuit of more
Instinctive pleasures 
Without interruption  

 其二

翼翼归鸟
载翔载飞
虽不怀游
见林情依
遇云颉颃
相鸣而归
遐路诚悠
性爱无遗

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