李清照·《声声慢》英译

Sheng Sheng Man

Li Qingzhao

To seek and seek, to search and search, and yet I know not what I am looking for. I feel cold, very cold, and everything surrounding me is bleak, very bleak. How dreary, how very dreary it is! And how cruel, so very cruel to suffer such misery, oh such lonely misery. When the weather has just turned warm but is still chilly at times, it is most difficult to take care. Even if I should drink three glasses or two cups of light wine, how can they be expected to rival the chills when it is late and the evening comes with its wind blowing so hard? The wild geese fly over my head, making me realize how sharply they can sadden my heart because they were my old acquaintances.

       All over the ground, the petals of yellow flowers have been piled and stacked. They are so withered and damaged now, who will ever think they are worthy for plucking? Watching by the window by myself, how am I to bear the passage of time until it is dark? The leaves of the wutong tree, as if to add to my sorrow, are sending down little drops of rain, which all the while till twilight, will drip and rip, splash and splash. At a moment like this, how may a little word like “sorrow” be endured?

（李廉凤 译）

Sheng Sheng Man

Li Qingzhao

Alas! I’ve wandered here and there,

Longing after something,

Yearning for something,

Aspiring to something,

Forever feeling lost,

Forever feeling sad,

In this cold, dreary autumn,

In this dreary, sad autumn.

Now ‘tis warm, anon chilly—

A season when one feels forlorn.

Alas! How can two cups of thin wine or three cope

With the wind that blows yet fiercer towards the eve!

The wild geese now fly past.

They are my acquainted birds,

Yet no tidings they bring

To brighten my somber heart.

Lo! All the ground is strewn

With yellow chrysanthemums;

They are decayed flowers,

Who fain would pick them up?

By my window lone I sit,

Twilight now waxes dark:

Without a fine rain patters on the plane leaves,

Whose sad music towards the eve proceeds—

A train of scenes which the saddest

Of the sad words fail to describe.

（黄宏荃 译）

Autumn Feelings

Tune: Sounds Come Slow

I seek I search

seek and search

in the chill so clear

chill and clear

after sudden warmth

the cold returns

it’s hard to relax

with cups

or bowls

of thin wine

how can I fight

another evening’s rough wind

the wild geese

passing me by

wounding my heart?

It’s so like long ago

together with you

yellow chrysanthemums

overflowing the earth

but griefstruck t now

who will pick them

with me?

staying long at the window

how will I last the night alone?

The wu t’ungs dripping

In fine rain

drops falling

through yellow dusk

this

how can

grief

describe?

（James Cryer 译）