Galleries and Translations > Recent Works / Poetry and Others > A Phrase from A Chanted Poem Upon a River《 江上吟 》句
A Phrase from A Chanted Poem Upon a River
(《 江上吟 》句 )
Translation
Original Chinese
English Translation
1. 仙人有待乘黃鶴,
While the Transcended (仙人, 1) still rely (待, 2) on riding a yellow crane (黃鶴, 3) to soar,
2. 海客無心隨白鷗.
I, wandering all over the world (海客, 4), have no intention of following the ivory gulls (白鷗) at all.
(translated by KS Vincent POON, November 2024)
Remarks
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(1) "仙人" are "transcended persons who have become immortal and possess mystical powers (神話傳說中長生不老、有種種神通的人)". Ibid., p.682.
(2) "待" here means "rely (依靠)", as in《商君書∙農戰》: "國待農戰而安, 主待農戰而尊." See《漢語大字典》. Wuhan: 崇文書局, 2010, p.879.
(3) The "yellow crane (黃鶴)" here alludes to a legend that Prince Jin (太子晉) of the Zhou Dynasty transcended to the skies by riding a crane. See 劉向,《列仙傳》Vol.1, 王子喬. 欽定四庫全書子部十二, 乾隆四十六年版, p.14b.
(4) "海客" here means "wanderers who roam all over the world (浪跡四海者)", as in 張固《幽閑鼓吹》: "丞相牛僧孺應舉時, 知於頔相奇俊, 特詣襄陽求知. 住數日, 兩見, 以海客遇之, 牛公怒而去." See《漢語大詞典》. Shanghai: 上海辭書出版社, 2008, p.1224.
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