Likes in Chinese
Likes in Chinese
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Learn Chinese Poetry — THE REEDS
Maybe you think this Chinese poetry is a narrative dealing with friendship, but most Chinese critics agree that this poem is a love song, opinions differ only as to whether the lover is a man or a woman.
The first two lines of the three stanzas describe the season when the reeds turned from green to frost-white. The dreariness of autumn may be easily associated with the weariness of the man in search of his love. The next two lines tell us vaguely where his love is without describing her physical beauty. The last four lines depict his fruitless, hard, long journey in search of his love. The harder and the longer his journey the more fruitless his search would appear. The more inaccessible his love, the more beautiful she would appear, not only in the eyes of the searcher but also of the reader. This method may be called “non-descriptive description” and it would be interesting to compare this piece with Byron’s Beauty’s Daughter:
There be none of Beauty’ s daughters
With a magic like thee;
And like music on the waters,
Is thy sweet voice to me.
When, as if its sound were causing
The charmed ocean’s pausing,
The waves lie still and gleaming
And the lulled wlnds seem dreaming.
If the English beauty is like music on the waters, then the Chinese beauty may be likened to music beyond the stream.
THE REEDS
The reeds grow green I
Frosted dew-drops gleam.
Where’s she so sheen?
Beyond the stream.
Upstream I go,
The way’s so long.
And downstream, lo!
She’s thereamong.
The reeds turn white,
Dew not yet dried.
Where’s she so bright?
On the other side.
Upstream I go,
The way’s so hard.
And downstream, lo!
She’s far apart.
The reeds still there,
With frost dews blend.
Where’s she so fair?
At the river’s end.
Upstream I go.
The way does wind.
And downstream, lo!
She’s far behind.
蒹葭
蒹葭苍苍，白露为霜。
所谓伊人，在水一方。
溯洄从之，道阻且长。
溯游从之，宛在水中央。
蒹葭凄凄，白露未晞。
所谓伊人，在水之湄。
溯洄从之，道阻且跻。
溯游从之，宛在水中坻。
蒹葭采采，白露未已。
所谓伊人，在水之涘。
溯洄从之，道阻且右。
溯游从之，宛在水中沚。
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