To be read in the dark, by the first light of morning.

Category Archives: Translations

黄鹤楼 / Yellow Crane Tower

Parkview Square is a large office tower in the Bugis region of Singapore, built in a resolutely anachronistic Art Deco style. Many people know it as the “Gotham City building”. It was the last project commissioned by the Taiwanese tycoon Hwang Chou-Shiuan, founder of the Chyau Fwu Group and of the Hong Kong Parkview Group. It seems he wanted something “imposing and monumental, yet stylish and elegant” for his final building, ultimately resulting in this magnificent tower. I love the building for its structural beauty, wealth of detailing, and absolute refusal to compromise its ideals for the sake of the landscape around it.

At the foot of the building is a golden statue of a crane, facing China, spreading its wings. Inscribed on the pedestal is the following poem:

黄鹤楼

故国旧有黄鹤楼
北望神州几千秋
黄鹤展翅飞万里
伟哉狮城见鹤楼

I don’t know who wrote the poem; perhaps it was the work of Mr. Hwang himself. It alludes faintly to Li Bai’s poem on China’s Yellow Crane Tower, which I translated in the previous entry. Here is my translation of the poem on the pedestal:

Yellow Crane Tower

In my old country once stood a Yellow Crane Tower;
how many autumns have I gazed north, homewards?
A yellow crane spreads its wings to fly ten thousand miles —
oh! In the Lion City I see a Crane Tower!

李白:黄鹤楼送孟浩然之广陵 / Li Bai, Seeing Meng Haoran Off to Guangling at Yellow Crane Tower

故人西辞黄鹤楼,烟花三月下扬州。
孤帆远影碧空尽,唯见长江天际流。

At Yellow Crane Tower, my old friend leaves the west;
he’s going down to Yangzhou in the third month’s misty blooms.
His lonely sail’s image fades into a jade-green void;
now all I see’s the River flowing to the sky’s borders.

Te lucis ante terminum / To Thee before the close of day

For roughly 1200 years the hymn sung at the Christian Office of Compline — and thus the final hymn sung before bed — has been the hymn Te lucis ante terminum, “To You before the end of light”. The best-known English version of this hymn is John Mason Neale’s 19th-century translation, “To Thee before the close of day”. (You know Neale’s work, even if you’ve never heard of him: he wrote the Christmas carol “Good King Wenceslas”, and also translated “Good Christian Men, Rejoice” and “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”.)

The original hymn — attributed to Saint Ambrose of Milan, who once astonished Saint Augustine with his ability to read without moving his lips — contains three verses. In 1974, after the Second Vatican Council, the new Breviary of Pope Paul VI removed the second verse of the ancient hymn and replaced it with two newly-composed verses. This is probably appropriate for our age, since — no matter how delicately you worded it — the original second verse essentially ran “O Lord, preserve us tonight from naughty thoughts and nocturnal emissions”.

To date, however, I have not been able to find a singable English translation of this new version of the hymn. I have therefore translated the two new verses in a manner similar to Neale’s, so that those who wish to do so can use them together with his excellent renderings of the two remaining original verses.

I now give the 1974 Latin text; a literal translation of all four verses; and my own singing version (the first and last stanzas remain Neale’s). I also hereby waive my copyright to this translation, making it public domain, so that anyone who wishes to use or adapt it for any purpose may do so.

1974 Latin version:

Te lucis ante terminum,
rerum Creator, poscimus,
ut solita clementia
sis praesul ad custodiam.

Te corda nostra somnient,
te per soporem sentiant,
tuamque semper gloriam
vicina luce concinant.

Vitam salubrem tribue,
nostrum calorem refice,
taetram noctis caliginem
tua collustret claritas.

Praesta, Pater omnipotens,
per Iesum Christum Dominum,
qui tecum in perpetuum
regnat cum Sancto Spiritu.

Amen.

Literal translation:

Before the end of light, Creator of all things, we ask
that with your customary clemency you might be guardian of our safety.

May our hearts dream of you; may they feel you in their sleep;
and may they ever sing your glory by the coming light.

Grant us healthful life; restore our ardour;
may your brightness illuminate the foul gloom of night.

Grant this, almighty Father, through Jesus Christ the Lord,
who reigns with you and the Holy Spirit forever.

Amen.

Singing version (the first and last verses are Neale’s):

To Thee, before the close of day,
Creator of the world, we pray
That with Thy wonted favour, Thou
Wouldst be our guard and keeper now.

Be Thou, Lord, in our dreams by night,
Be Thou our slumb’ring souls’ delight;
And may we rise again to sing
Of Thee, in light, almighty King.

Grant to us wholeness, we implore;
The fullness of our hearts restore;
Dispel the murky shades of night
With dazzling beams of glory bright.

O Father, that we ask be done
Through Jesus Christ, Thine only Son,
Who, with the Holy Ghost and Thee,
Doth live and reign eternally.

Amen.

欧阳昱:“假如我能以我的吻” / Ouyang Yu, “If I could with my kiss”

假如我能以我的吻
使你安静地入眠
我愿以它不枯的蜜汁
润泽你的枯唇

假如我能以我的拥抱
使你的血液燃烧
我愿以它炽烈的炭火
沸腾你的身腰

无论是我的甜吻
或是炙烈的火焰
都凋谢在这冰冷的床边
冬末寒冷的黄昏

If I could with my kiss
Help you fall asleep peacefully
I would use its moist honey
To wet your dry lips

If I could with my embrace
Set fire to your blood
I would use its burning coals
To set your waist aflame

But whether it be my sweet kisses
Or a blazing fire
They all perish at this freezing bedside
This cold late-winter evening

海子:最后一夜和第一日的献诗 / Hai Zi, A Poem for the Final Night and the First Day

今夜你的黑头发
是岩石上寂寞的黑夜
牧羊人用雪白的羊群
填满飞机场周围的黑暗

黑夜比我更早睡去
黑夜是神的伤口
你是我的伤口
羊群和花朵也是岩石的伤口

雪山
用大雪填满飞机场周围的黑暗
雪山女神吃的是野兽穿的是鲜花
今夜 九十九座雪山高出天堂
使我彻夜难眠

Tonight your black hair
Is like a lonely black night on a stone
The shepherds use snow-white flocks
To fill up the darkness surrounding the airport

The black night falls asleep earlier than I
The black night is the wound of a god
You are my wound
And sheep and flowers are the wounds of a stone

The snowy mountain
Uses heavy snow to fill up the darkness surrounding the airport
The goddess of the snowy mountain eats wild beasts, wears fresh flowers
Tonight ninety-nine snowy mountains tower beyond heaven
Making it hard for me to sleep all night

张说:蜀道后期 / Zhang Yue, Delayed on the road from Shu

客心争日月,来往预期程。
秋风不相待,先至洛阳城。

Travellers vie with the sun and moon,
rushing to arrive on schedule;
but the autumn wind won’t wait;
it has reached Luoyang before me.

Pablo Neruda: Tonight I can write the saddest lines

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.

Escribir, por ejemplo: “La noche está estrellada,
y tiritan, azules, los astros, a lo lejos.”

El viento de la noche gira en el cielo y canta.

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Yo la quise, y a veces ella también me quiso.

En las noches como esta la tuve entre mis brazos.
La besé tantas veces bajo el cielo infinito.

Ella me quiso, a veces yo también la quería.
Cómo no haber amado sus grandes ojos fijos.

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Pensar que no la tengo. Sentir que la he perdido.

Oir la noche inmensa, más inmensa sin ella.
Y el verso cae al alma como al pasto el rocío.

Qué importa que mi amor no pudiera guardarla.
La noche esta estrellada y ella no está conmigo.

Eso es todo. A lo lejos alguien canta. A lo lejos.
Mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.

Como para acercarla mi mirada la busca.
Mi corazón la busca, y ella no está conmigo.

La misma noche que hace blanquear los mismos árboles.
Nosotros, los de entonces, ya no somos los mismos.

Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero cuánto la quise.
Mi voz buscaba el viento para tocar su oído.

De otro. Será de otro. Como antes de mis besos.
Su voz, su cuerpo claro. Sus ojos infinitos.

Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero tal vez la quiero.
Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.

Porque en noches como esta la tuve entre mis brazos,
mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.

Aunque este sea el ultimo dolor que ella me causa,
y estos sean los ultimos versos que yo le escribo.

~|~

Tonight I can write the saddest lines,

can write, for example: “The night is starry
and the stars in the distance are shivering and blue.”

The night wind wheels in the sky, singing.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

On nights like this one I held her in my arms,
kissing her over and over beneath the endless sky.

She loved me, and sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes?

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think I do not have her, to feel that I have lost her,

to hear the immense night immenser still without her.
The verse falls to the soul like dew to the grass.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her?
The night is starry and she is not with me.

That’s all. In the distance someone is singing, in the distance.
My soul is not at peace, having lost her.

My eyes search for her, as if to bring her closer.
My heart seeks her out, but she is not with me.

The same night is whitening the same trees,
but we are no longer the same people we were.

I no longer love her, true, but how I loved her!
My voice searched the wind that it might touch her ear.

Someone else’s, she’ll be someone else’s, as she was before my kisses.
Her voice, her bright body, and her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, true. Then again maybe I do.
Love is so short, and forgetting is so long.

Because on nights like this one I held her in my arms,
my soul is not at peace, having lost her,

even though this will be the last pain she gives me,
and these the last verses that I will write for her.

王安石: 梅花 / Wang Anshi, Plum blossoms

墙角数枝梅,凌寒独自开。
遥知不是雪,为有暗香来。

At the foot of the wall, a few sprigs of plum blossom
are opening alone in the cold packed ice.
Yet still from a distance you can tell they’re not snow
by the faint scent that’s there, floating by.

The Song of Songs

Some quick introductory notes

I have always been fond of the Song of Songs as a work of poetry, one of the classic texts of the Hebrew Bible. But at the same time I have also found the lushness and eroticism of the Song hamstrung in English translations of the Bible, owing perhaps to prudishness on the part of Bible translators, or to the limitations of the obligatory chapter-and-verse format, or to zealous attempts to make the text accord with traditional exegesis. But I am neither Christian nor Jew, and I wanted to make a version for myself that would sing, that would appeal to me personally as a work of literature. This is the result.

I have thought of this piece primarily as music, with its themes and motifs which occur, transform and develop, and recur; a kind of concerto in seven movements for two voices and a chorus. Taken as a literary work, the Song can seem haphazard, random, confusing; understood as a piece of music, it makes perfect sense. I have set the movement breaks where I (and other commentators) have found them to be most appropriate; these do not correspond to the traditional chapter and verse divisions. I’ll add these at a later date for those who would like such things.

Of all the works I consulted, the detailed commentary on the Hebrew provided by Ariel and Chana Bloch in their own version of the Song proved to be the most enlightening. This version is significantly indebted to them.

*

The Song of Songs

The song of songs, which is Solomon’s.

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鱼玄机: 访赵炼师不遇 / Yu Xuanji, Visiting Master Zhao and not finding him

何处同仙侣,青衣独在家。
暖炉留煮药,邻院为煎茶。
画壁灯光暗,幡竿日影斜。
殷勤重回首,墙外数枝花。

Where might you be, with your immortal companions?
Only your servant is home;
you’ve left herbs cooking on the warm brazier,
tea leaves brewing in the next courtyard.
The painted walls fade into the lamplight,
the flagstaff’s long shadow is slanting —
again and again I look round,
but beyond the wall, only flowers.