2018 推句 31 - 40
Original Script
32.
鳥宿池邊樹요
僧敲月下門이라.
棹穿波底月이요
船壓水中天이라.
37.
鳥逐花間蝶이요
鷄爭草中蟲이라.
鳥喧蛇登樹요
犬吠客到門이라.
39.
月到梧桐上이요
風來楊柳邊이라.
群星陣碧天이요
落葉戰秋山이라.
Translation
Poem 32 : (Okyang)
Birds sleep, on the tree by the pond,
A monk knocks, on a door under the moon.
Oars pass through the moon under the waves,
A boat presses the sky in the water.
- Discussion Questions:
+ (Fran) I think I would find it more poetic if the lines were not in the -ing form (I forget the technical word for this tense). So instead, "Birds sleep on the tree bordering the pond; A monk knocks on a door under the moon; Oars pass through the moon under the waves; A boat presses the sky in the water."
(UO) I kinda wondered, what about "Birds sleep, on the tree by the pond; A monk knocks, on the door under the moon..."? As you can tell, I am thinking about the break after the first two syllables in each line (e.g., 鳥宿 / 池邊樹) in the original text.
Poem 37 : Bryan
37.
鳥逐花間蝶이요
Birds are following the butterflies among flowers,
鷄爭草中蟲이라.
Chiken are competing for bugs on the grass.
鳥喧蛇登樹요
Birds are twittering and the snake are climbing the trees,
犬吠客到門이라.
Dogs are barking when the guest arrive on the gate.
- Discussion Questions:
1- I choose "to twitter" for 喧 and "to bark" for 吠.
(YO) Is there a word for a more urgent bird noise than tweeter, since the snake is climbing up to their nest?
2- I think it is more poetic if the lines are in the -ing form, to creat tempo and also includ the reader on the present time of the action.
Poem 39 : (Fran)
The moon descends on the paulownia tree;
The wind surrounds the weeping willow.[1]
The thronging stars deploy in the blue sky,
The falling leaves battle on the autumn mountain.
- Discussion Questions:
+ I am going for poetic impact here rather than literalism--so, for example, "The moon descends on the paulownia tree" rather than "The moon arrives on top of the paulownia tree."
- ↑ These first two lines are from a poem by Shao Yong (1011-1077) of the Song Dynasty. He was a neo-Confucian philosopher and mathematician influenced by his study of the Yijing, which led him to believe that numbers are the key to understanding the universe. Shao Yong's ideas influenced Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) and his development of the binary arithmetic system. (YO) The entire poem reads: "The moon descends on the paulownia tree; The wind surrounds the weeping willow. In the depth of the courtyard people are quiet again; Of this scene, with whom do I speak?" 月到梧桐上，風來楊柳邊。院深人復靜，此景共誰言。(The poem is collected by Cheng Yi 程頤 (1033-1107) in his Yichuan Jirangji 伊川擊壤集, juan 12
