杜甫 – 佳人

杜甫 – 佳人

DU Fu – A Fair Lady

中文﹕

絕代有佳人，幽居在空谷。自云良家子，零落依草木。

關中昔喪亂，兄弟遭殺戮；官高何足論？不得收骨肉。

世情惡衰歇，萬事隨轉燭。夫婿輕薄兒，新人美如玉。

合昏尚知時，鴛鴦不獨宿；但見新人笑，那聞舊人哭？

在山泉水清，出山泉水濁。侍婢賣珠迴，牽蘿補茅屋。

摘花不插髮，采柏動盈掬。天寒翠袖薄，日暮倚修竹。

English Translation﹕

A fair lady of unrivalled beauty,

Lived in a remote valley away from society.

She told of a good lineage,

But had fallen to the grass roots, and on no one could she rely.

Within the Great Wall once disorder raged,

All her brothers were massacred and family victimised.

What of the power and the glory of office so high?

When in the turmoil of war they couldn't even remains find.

The fickle and shrewd of the world loathed the down and out,

Everything could change just like a candle in the wind might.

She was married to a philanderer,

He cast her aside and took another beauty as his other wife.

Mimosa furls tight in the dark,

Mandarin ducks do not sleep alone at night.

Yet her husband only attended to smiles of new company,

Never did he care whether she would cry.

In the mountains, spring water would run pure and clear,

Off the mountain, spring water would dirt gather and run vile.

She would send her maid to jewellery pawn so as to life sustain,

And to their thatched cottage maintain she put to use morning glory vines.

When she flowers picked, they were not for her hair,

She would however cypress leaves hold, for they fidelity signify.

She braved the cold in her jade-colour light clothing,

Leaning on slender, tall and virtuous bamboos in the twilight.

 英譯作者：曾培慈 / Betty Tseng