Galleries and Translations > Models of Masterpieces > Modelling and English Translation of Sun Guoting's "A Narrative on Calligraphy" 孫過庭 《書譜》之臨習與英譯
Modelling and English Translation of Sun Guoting's "A Narrative on Calligraphy"
(Part III)
by Kwan Sheung Vincent POON (潘君尚)
Oct. 15, 2017
Published on www.vincentpoon.com, Toronto
A. Modelling (by KS Vincent POON)
A model of Sun Guoting's "A Narrative on Calligraphy" (Part I)
臨孫過庭《書譜》 (第一部份)
35 X 137cm (11)
Click to Enlarge. In reserve, not available in Shop.
B. Historical Information
Please see Part I
Readers are strongly encouraged to read the blue numerical footnotes below to gain a better understanding of the original Chinese text and to review some major errors in the translations made by others.
English Translation
Original Chinese Text
Yet, for a gentleman to conduct himself properly in society, it is necessary for him to first refine and cultivate his own innate character.
55. 然君子立身，務修其本。
Yang Xiong (揚雄 53BC -18BC) once said poetries and songs are trivial and minor arts, and hence a strong and able adult should not spend time practicing them,
56. 揚雄謂詩賦小道，壯夫不為，
FOR LINES 57- 68,
PLEASE PURCHASE THE REVISED AND ENHANCED EDITION WITH FOOTNOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY:
57. 況復溺思豪釐，淪精翰墨者也。
58. 夫潛神對奕，猶標坐隱之名；
59. 樂志垂綸，尚體行藏之趣。
60. 詎若功定禮樂，
61. 妙擬神仙;
62. 猶挻埴之罔窮，
63. 與工鑪而並運。
64. 好異尚奇之士，翫體勢之多方；
65. 窮微測妙之夫，得推移之奧賾。
66. 著述者假其糟粕，藻鑒者挹其菁華.
67. 固義理之會歸，信賢達之兼善者矣。
68. 存精寓賞，豈徒然與!?
FOR FURTHER TRANSLATION, FOOTNOTES, AND
ELABORATIONS
PLEASE SEE :
A Narrative on Calligraphy by Sun Guoting Revised and Enchanced Edition 英譯書譜 增訂版Translated by KS Vincent POON and Kwok Kin POON (Mar. 2019)
ISBN 978-1-989485-10-1
A Narrative on Calligraphy (Shu Pu, 書譜) was written in 687AD by the renowned Tang dynasty calligrapher Sun Guoting (孫過庭) of the seventh century and is regarded to be one of the most important narratives in examining the traditional art of Chinese calligraphy. Yet, there is currently no satisfactory English translation of it. This book provides readers an accurate, annotated, line-by-line, consistent and comprehensive English translation of A Narrative on Calligraphy. Furthermore, various major and fundamental mistakes found in the two previous English translations by Chang & Frankel and De Laurentis are detailed and discussed.
This book is the revised and enhanced version of the previous book and delivers an even more precise translation with 20 titled thematic paragraphs that is based on Dr. Kwok Kin POON’s The Vernacular Chinese Translation of Sun Guoting’s A Narrative on Calligraphy (孫過庭書譜白話對譯. Toronto: The SenSeis, Feb. 2019).
WorldCat/Library: [WorldCat] [Oxford U] [U of T] [Harvard U] [Columbia U] [HKU] [CUHK] [Kyoto U] [National Taiwan U]
END OF PART III (Oct. 15, 2017)