论诗
赵翼
其一
满眼生机转化钧，天工人巧日争新。
预支五百年新意，到了千年又觉陈。
On Poetry
Chao Yi
I
The world is alive with inspiration to a potter who turns the wheel.
By nature’s doing and human skill, too, one strives daily for something new.
I predict, though, a new thought that holds for five hundred years
Will become, in another five hundred, hackneyed and stale.
（Irving Lo 译）
On Poetry
Zhao Yi
I
The life I see all around me turns
on the Potter’s Wheel of Change:
Heaven’s skill and human craft
always compete for the new.
The poet provides a new idea
that lasts five hundred years,
but when it’s reached a thousand years,
it seems like a cliché.
（Stephen Owen 译）
其二
李杜诗篇万口传，至今已觉不新鲜。
江山代有才人出，各领风骚数百年。
On Poetry
Chao Yi
II
The poems of Li Po and Tu Fu, passed along myriad voices,
No longer seem in this modern era so fresh and new.
Every age these rivers and hills produce a genius,
Each capturing in spirit the Odes and Song* for scores of decades.
*The Shih-ching and Ch’u Tz’u, the two oldest anthologies of Chinese poetry.
（William Schultz 译）
On Poetry
Zhao Yi
II
Poems of Li Bo and Du Fu
have passed through thousands of mouths,
and by now they’ve come to seem
not vivid or new at all.
In every age our hills and our rivers
bring forth men of talent
and each holds sway over poetry
for a span of five hundred years.
（Stephen Owen 译）
On Poetry
Zhao Yi
(2)
Li Bai, Du Fu made poems
Millions admire.
But who could write like that today?
Every time has its own masters,
Every master owns his own wonders.
（丁祖鑫 译）
On Poetry
Zhao Yi
Li-Du’s* poems have been recited by innumerable people,
Now their poems are inconsiderable as fresh and strong.
The homeland will bring a genius at some timetable,
Each genius will be admirable for few centuries long.
*Li-Du here refers to the greatest poet Li Bo (701-762) and Du Fu (712-770) in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
（朱曼华 译）
On Poetry
Zhao Yi
Li Bai and Du Fu’s verse* is read from mouth to mouth,
But now it cannot arouse our emotion new.
Talents emerge from age to age, from north to south,
To lead in verse for hundred years each has his due.
*Li Bai (701-762) was the greatest romantic poet and Du Fu (712-770) was the greatest realistic poet of the Tang Dynasty.
（许渊冲 译）
On Poetry
Zhao Yi
Poems of Li and Du have been widely read;
Now they are no longer so fresh.
Every epoch has geniuses of its own;
Each leads in the poetic world for hundreds of years.
（王晋熙、文殊 译）
其三
只眼须凭自主张，纷纷艺苑漫雌黄。
矮人看戏何曾见，都是随人说短长。
On Poetry
Zhao Yi
(3)
Piercing minds
Create piercing understanding.
Chittering, chattering
Confuses tiny minds –
The way a dwarf at a fair
Sees nothing,
Says only what others who see
Say.
（丁祖鑫 译）
On Poetry
Zhao Yi
Original opinions come from one’s own judgement;
Many people making criticisms just freely wag their tongues.
How can dwarfs watching a performance see anything?
They just repeat what others have said.
（王晋熙、文殊 译）
其四
词客争新角短长，迭开风气递登场。
自身已有初中晚，安得千秋尚汉唐。
On Poetry
Zhao Yi
Poets all contend to put forth something new;
They turn up in succession, each with a fresh style.
Everyone has his earlier, middle and later stages;
How can Han and Tang be the models for ever?
（王晋熙、文殊 译）
其五
诗解穷人我未空，想因诗尚不曾工。
熊鱼自笑贪心甚，既要工诗又怕穷。
On Poetry
Chao Yi
V
The best of poetry comes from the destitute, but my pocket is not yet empty;
I gather, it’s all because I haven’t perfected my skill as a poet.
Having fish to eat or bear’s paw? * I admit, I’m greedy for both:
I yearn for skill in poetry, yet how I dread being poor!
*Alluding to a famous parable in the Meng-tzu, in which Mencius points out that when two delicacies, fish and bears’ paw, are placed before a person and he can only have one of the two to eat he has to make a difficult choice.
（Irving Lo 译）
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