錦瑟無端五十弦

錦瑟無端五十弦
一弦一柱思華年
庄生有夢迷蝴蝶
望帝春心化杜鵑
滄海月明珠有淚
藍田日暖玉生煙
此情可待成追憶
只是當時思悄然

Coincidentally, this zither has also fifty strings
Each string seems to have my past year  linked.
Zhongsheng was a fervent nature lover
That he incarnated himself into a butterfly in dream.
Wangdi was so stupefied
That he turned himself into a cuckoo bird in imagination.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

To me...
I had the same affection toward the phenomenon.
When the full moon was above the sea,
I felt there were thousands of twinkling tears.
And In the sun rise, I saw a blue fog between the earth and the sky.

Oh, those memories might still be traced,
Yet, my mind is getting thinner and faded...

呵呵，譯成英語好象沒有迷離的意境了

精神可佳, 就是這樣翻譯全沒有的文中的蘊意.

Readers know at lease what this poem means. without my translation, the Chinese version may be more difficult to understand than the English translation!

Furthermore, please talk to me in English because this is the "English Garden"!

Coincidentally, this zither has also fifty strings.
Each string seems to have my past years linked.
Zhongsheng was a fervent nature lover,
That he incarnated himself into a butterfly in dream.
Wandi was so stupefied,
That he turned himself into a cuckoo bird in allusion.
I had the same affection toward the love of nature.
When the full moon was above the sea,
I felt there were thousands of twinkling tears.
And in the  sun rise,
I saw a blue fog between the earth and the sky.
Oh, my old memories might still be traced,
But they are getting weaker and faded.

I'm sure that your translation is very good for people who don't speak Chinese. We thank you for your effort.



錦瑟心音
http://club.backchina.com/main/showthread.php?t=189181

Thank you for your response on my post "Jin Se Wu Duan Wu Shi Xian."  As your response contains more denounce than praise, I have to express my feeling and explanation.

(1) I didn't make anything wrong that "Jin Se" is somekind of musical instrument with multiple strings.

(2) I pointed out that each string reminded the poet with his age that is exactly as your article said.

(3) Starting the third and the fouth verses, "Zhongsheng You Meng ..." and "Wandi Chun Xim..." describe how some other poets or literary men were enchanted with the nature and turned themselves into part of the nature. I think I have made a clear description.

(4) The fifth and the  sixth verses are important. Those two sentences denote how the author (li Shang yin) feels his love of nature. Without knowing these two sentences, readers may get lost on all the poems.  Many readers had puzzled what these two sentences describe about! Now, I pointed them out that they were the author's own feeling.

(5)  I admitted that my translation is not ideal as many people desired.  As a translation work is essentially a change of language from one to the other.  There are basically no two languages or two ideas are completely alike.  So there is no way to translate two languages exactly into one concept  especailly the translation of poetry.  The example is, Shakespearne wrote many famous poems but I have not seen any translation of the Chinese language with the scent of its original tastes!