<Header>
<Author: 李商隱>
<Title: 錦瑟>
<Format: 七言律詩>
<Year: 1989>
<BookName: 100 TANG POEMS 唐詩一百首>
<Translator: Zhang Tingchen & Bruce M. Wilson>
<TranslatedTitle: The Ornate Zither>
<BookPage: 214-215>
<UsedPage: 2>
<Feature: 1, 4>
<End Header>
<Poem>
錦瑟無端五十絃，
一絃一柱思華年。
莊生曉夢迷蝴蝶，
望帝春心託杜鵑。
滄海月明珠有淚，
藍田日暖玉生煙。
此情可待成追憶，
只是當時已惘然。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
The richly painted zither somehow has fifty strings,
Each of which recalls a vanished year.
Dawn dreaming Zhuang Zi got mixed up with a butterfly,
King Wang lent tender feelings to the cuckoo's call.
In bright moonlit seas of blue, tears change to pearls,
The air above Lantian shimmers from the jade hidden within
its hills.
These thoughts are not the stuff of recollection,
But what eludes our grasp as life itself unfolds.
<End Translation>
<Formatted Translation>
The richly painted zither somehow has fifty strings,
Each of which recalls a vanished year.
Dawn dreaming Zhuang Zi got mixed up with a butterfly,
King Wang lent tender feelings to the cuckoo's call.
In bright moonlit seas of blue, tears change to pearls,
The air above Lantian shimmers from the jade hidden within its hills.
These thoughts are not the stuff of recollection,
But what eludes our grasp as life itself unfolds.
<End Formatted Translation>