<Header>
<Author: 杜甫>
<Title: 觀公孫大娘弟子舞劍器行>
<Format: 七言古詩>
<Year: 1940>
<BookName: Selection from the Three Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty>
<Translator: Soame Jenyns>
<TranslatedTitle: On seeing the Pupil of Kung Sun dance the Sword Dance>
<BookPage: 66-68>
<UsedPage: 3>
<Feature: 1, 4, 5>
<End Header>
<Poem>
昔有佳人公孫氏，
一舞劍氣動四方。
觀者如山色沮喪，
天地為之久低昂。
鬴如羿射九日落，
矯如群帝驂龍翔。
來如雷霆收震怒，
罷如江海凝清光。
絳脣珠袖兩寂寞，
況有弟子傳芬芳。
臨潁美人在白帝，
妙舞此曲神揚揚。
與余問答既有以，
感時撫事增惋傷。
先帝侍女八千人，
公孫劍器初第一。
五十年間似反掌，
風塵傾動昏王室。
梨園子弟散如煙，
女樂餘姿映寒日。
金粟堆南木已拱，
瞿唐石城草蕭瑟。
玳筵急管曲復終，
樂極哀來月東出。
老夫不知其所往，
足繭荒山轉愁疾。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
OF old times there was a beautiful courtesan Kung Sun,
When she danced the sword dance everyone was moved;
Those who saw her were massed like the hills tense with emotion;
Heaven and earth swayed in sympathy up and down.
For she flashed like the arrow with which the archer Yi shot down the nine suns
And soared as a crowd of spirit kings astride their wingéd dragons.
She began like a thunder clap with all the anger of rolling echoes,
She finished like the waters of the Yangtze shining calm and still on a summer day.
Her red lips, her pearl sleeves are things of the past,
But in the evening (of her life) there was a pupil to carry on her fragrant traditions.
When the beautiful dancer of Lin-ying, now (her successor), danced in Po Ti Palace
She danced wonderfully to the music and her skill triumphed.
When I talked with her we found a common background of memory.
Overcome by memories the episode was coloured with an added poignancy.
Ming Huang possessed over eighty such girls, of whom Kung Sun excelled all as a sword dancer.
The passage of fifty years is gone as the turn of the hand,
Wind and dust in continuous storms have darkened the Imperial palaces,
The children of the pear garden have drifted away like smoke,
The remnant of that galaxy of beauty (look forward) to the bright cold of a winter’s day.
The trees already meet to the south of the tomb of Ming Huang.
On the stone walls of Ch‘ü T‘ang the grasses rattle in the wind.
(To-night) as this splendid feast, as the song of the tortoise-shell flute and the pipes drew to its close,
At the very moment of my ecstacy came sadness; while the moon comes out in the east
An old man like myself does not know where to go.
With blistered feet I stumble among the wild hills, yet I regret my haste.
<End Translation>
<Formatted Translation>
OF old times there was a beautiful courtesan Kung Sun,
When she danced the sword dance everyone was moved;
Those who saw her were massed like the hills tense with emotion;
Heaven and earth swayed in sympathy up and down.
For she flashed like the arrow with which the archer Yi shot down the nine suns
And soared as a crowd of spirit kings astride their wingéd dragons.
She began like a thunder clap with all the anger of rolling echoes,
She finished like the waters of the Yangtze shining calm and still on a summer day.
Her red lips, her pearl sleeves are things of the past,
But in the evening (of her life) there was a pupil to carry on her fragrant traditions.
When the beautiful dancer of Lin-ying, now (her successor), danced in Po Ti Palace
She danced wonderfully to the music and her skill triumphed.
When I talked with her we found a common background of memory.
Overcome by memories the episode was coloured with an added poignancy.
Ming Huang possessed over eighty such girls, of whom Kung Sun excelled all as a sword dancer.
The passage of fifty years is gone as the turn of the hand,
Wind and dust in continuous storms have darkened the Imperial palaces,
The children of the pear garden have drifted away like smoke,
The remnant of that galaxy of beauty (look forward) to the bright cold of a winter’s day.
The trees already meet to the south of the tomb of Ming Huang.
On the stone walls of Ch‘ü T‘ang the grasses rattle in the wind.
(To-night) as this splendid feast, as the song of the tortoise-shell flute and the pipes drew to its close,
At the very moment of my ecstacy came sadness; while the moon comes out in the east
An old man like myself does not know where to go.
With blistered feet I stumble among the wild hills, yet I regret my haste.
<End Formatted Translation>