Li Bai Poem: Sorrow of Separation Severed for Aye – 李白《远别离》

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远别离

李白

远别离,

古有皇英之二女,

乃在洞庭之南,

潇湘之浦。

海水直下万里深,

谁人不言此离苦?

日惨惨兮云冥冥,

猩猩啼烟兮鬼啸雨。

我纵言之将何补?

皇穹窃恐不照余之忠诚,

雷凭凭兮欲吼怒。

尧舜当之亦禅禹。

君失臣兮龙为鱼,

权归臣兮鼠变虎。

或云:尧幽囚,

舜野死。

九疑联绵皆相似,

重瞳孤坟竟何是?

帝子泣兮绿云间,

随风波兮去无还。

恸哭兮远望,

见苍梧之深山。

苍梧山崩湘水绝,

竹上之泪乃可灭。

Sorrow of Separation Severed for Aye

Li Bai

From the two princesses of ancient day,

Emperor Shun was buried south of the lake,

Where the two rivers meet awake,

And flow for miles and miles into the sea.

From the sorrow of separaton who is free?

The sun is gloomy, veiled by dark cloud;

In mist and rain the monkeys wail and ghosts cry loud.

Of what avail is all that I say?

The Royal Dome knows not my loyalty;

Its thunder roars against me.

Even emperors to successors should give way.

When the king’s not supported, the dragon turns into fish;

The rats in power become tigers as they with.

Emperor Yao was put in jail:

Emperor Shun died in the field to no avail.

Alike the Nine Mysterious Peaks look.

Where to find Emperor Shun’s lonely tomb?

The princesses wept among the cloud green;

They gazed from afar and shed tears;

Now only the deep green mountain appears.

Only when mountains crumble and rivers go dry

Would the tear-specked bamboos vanish from the eye.

The legend goes that the two princesses were daughters of Emperor Yao and wives to Emperor Shun who died by the side of Dongting Lake and was buried at the foot of the Nine Mysterious Peaks. The princesses wept over the death of Emperor Shun and their tears specked the bamboos.

《远别离》是唐代大诗人李白创作的乐府诗。这首诗通过娥皇、女英二妃和舜帝生离死别的故事,表现远别离的悲哀,并从故事中引出“尧幽囚”、“舜野死”的传说,说明人君失权的后果。“君失臣兮龙为鱼,权归臣兮鼠变虎”,形象地表现了诗人对唐王朝前途的忧虑。全诗议论、抒情和情景描写穿插得妥帖自然,以娥皇女英事开头,又以其事作结,既保持了结构上的完整性,又令人领略了悲剧式的崇高之美,艺术手法与诗歌主旨并行不悖,体现了李诗行云流水的风格。

The poem “Sorrow of Separation Severed for Aye” is a poem written by Li Bai, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty. The poem expresses the sadness of far-away separation through the story of the two concubines E Huang, Nü Ying and Emperor Shun, and draws out from the story the legend of “Yao’s imprisonment” and “Shun’s death in the wilderness” to illustrate the consequences of the loss of power of a ruler. The poet’s worries about the future of the Tang Dynasty are graphically expressed in the poem “When the ruler loses his ministers, the dragon becomes a fish; when the power returns to the ministers, the rat becomes a tiger”. The entire poem is interspersed with discussion, lyricism and descriptions of scenes, beginning and ending with the story of Ehuang Nuying, which not only maintains structural integrity, but also brings out the beauty of tragic sublimity.

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