秋夕
杜牧
银烛秋光冷画屏，轻罗小扇扑流萤。
天阶夜色凉如水，坐看牵牛织女星。
注：全诗最后一句，有版本又作：卧看牵牛织女星。
The Double Seventh Night
DuMu
Autumnhas chilled the painted screen in silver moonlight;
Asilken fan is used to catch flitting firefly.
Thesteps seem steeped in water when cold grows the night.
Shelies to watch two stars in love meet in the sky.
(许渊冲、许明 译)
An autumn night
DuMu
Onthe pictured screen, a candle throws its light.
Onesense the chill of autumn, though it be slight.
Alassie, holding in her hand, a light silken fan,
Goesabout swatting fireflies as many as she can.
Scarcelyvisible, as twilight is near,
Coldas water, the stone pavements appear.
Shelies down, as evening scenes into nocturne pass,
Watchingthe legendary stars “Cowherd and his lass”.
(徐忠杰 译)
Autumn Evening
DuMu
Autumnlight
Froma white candle
Ona cold moonlit screen.
Asilk fan
Catchingglow-worms
Onthe fly.
Longinto the dark evening
Shesits on the palace steps,
Forgettingcool night
Asshe watches the Cowherd Star
Meetinghis Weaver Girl, high in the sky.
(丁祖鑫 译)
An Autumn Evening
DuMu
Inthe flickering autumn candlelight, the painted screen grows cold.
Witha small fan of silk gauze*, she scatters the drifting fireflies.
Aschill waters of the night envelop the palace steps,
Shesits to watch the Herdsman and Weaver Maid**.
*The poem portrays an imperial concubine fallen from favor. Her situation isthus analogous to that of the “small fan of silk gauze” discarded at summer’send.
**Herdsman…Weaver Maid: Stars positioned south and north of the Milky Way. Inpopular legend, they were lovers who meet only once a year on the seventh dayof the seventh month, when magpies build a bridge for them to cross the “Riverof Heaven”.
(张廷琛、Bruce M.Wilson 译)
AutumnNight*
Du Mu
Silver candle, autumn light and cold picturescreen,
Small fan of light silk swatting streakingglow-worms.
Palace steps at night cold as water,
Where she sits watching Cowherd and Weaving Girl**.
* The subject of this poem is a palace maid. Inancient China, once a girl was chosen to be a maid in the imperial palace, shebecame a virtual prisoner for life, no freedom to move around, nor to marry.
** Cowherd and Weaving Girl are lovers in Chinese mythology,identified with stars Altair and Vega. They are separated by the Milky Way andpermitted to see each other only once a year on the 7th day of Julywhen the magpies form a bridge where the star-crossed lovers meet at thehalfway point.
(任治稷、余正 译)
Evening in August
DuMu
whitecandles are burning
autumnis in the air
peopleare cold
andthe room panels are cold
sheswipes at fireflies with a little fan
afan delicate and made of silk
sheis sitting by the staircase
atthe front of the house
theautumn wind
chillyas a mountain stream
shewatches the one star and the other
Altairand Vega
thecowherd and the woman at the loom
fromthe old story
(王守义、约翰·诺弗尔 译)
