A Lotus Pool in the Moonlight
Zhu Ziqing
(Tr. by Xu Yingcai / 徐英才譯)
I feel very restless these days. Tonight, while I sit in our yard and enjoy the cool air, it strikes me that the lotus pool that I pass every day must look different under this full moon. The moon sails slowly up into the sky, and the laughter of the children playing in the street behind the wall is all gone. In the house, my wife pats our son Run’er to the beat of the lullaby she drowsily croons. I quietly slip on a gown and walk out, leaving the door closed behind me.
Winding along the side of the lotus pool is a cinder-paved path. This is a secluded road with very few pedestrians, even during the daytime, and therefore, it is quieter at night. Encircling the pool are dense clusters of trees, and growing by the path are willows and some trees unknown to me. On a moonless night, this path appears eerily somber, but it is fine tonight, although the moonlight is pale.
I am the only one on the path, strolling with my hands behind me. This gives me a sense of possessing the entire vicinity, and also a sense of sublimating myself into another world. I enjoy the hustle and bustle of life but am also fond of peacefulness. I like socializing, but don’t mind being all by myself. Like tonight, under this filmy moon, all by myself, I can think about anything I want to or nothing at all. I therefore feel I am a free man. I can completely ignore what I have to do or say during the daytime. This is the beauty of being alone. So let me just enjoy this boundless view of the lotus in the moonlight.
Gazing at the meandering pool, I see an abundance of lotus leaves. Standing high above the water, they look like the flared skirts of ballerinas; interspersed among the layers upon layers of leaves are white flowers, some of them blossoming gracefully and others budding shyly. They look very much like bright pearls, or stars in the azure sky. When a gentle breeze wafts over them, a whiff of lingering fragrance follows, which is as ethereal as the music flowing from the high tower in the distance. Right at this moment, there is a slight shiver from among the leaves and flowers. Like lightning, it flashes to the other side of the pool in the blink of an eye and zips open the densely clustered leaves in a jade-green streak. Underneath the leaves are innumerable ripples, which may be invisible, yet this invisibility is what accentuates the charm of the leaves.
Like water, the moonlight quietly streams onto the wide expanse of leaves and flowers. Over the pool, a thin greenish mist floats up. Thus, the leaves and flowers appear to be washed in milk or cloaked in a piece of fine gauze, as misty as a dream. Although a full-orbed moon sails in the sky tonight, it cannot shine brightly, because of the clouds, flimsy though they may be. In my opinion, this is where the beauty lies—although one cannot dispense with sound sleep, sometimes a little nap has its own appeal. As the moon shines through the trees, it casts across the pool irregular and mottled shadows from the bosky shrubs standing high above. The sparse silhouettes of the winsome, sinuous willows seem to be painted onto the lotus leaves. The moonlight does not shine evenly onto the pool, but the lights and the shadows thus formed are rendered so harmoniously that they are like a famous melody being played on the violin.
Surrounding the pool, far and near, high and low, are trees, and most of them are willows. They encircle the pool tightly, except for a few spaces at the side where the path winds along. These spaces look as though they have been designed particularly to receive the moonshine. All of these trees appear dim, and look, at a quick glance, like a cloud of smog. But through the smog, the graceful stance of the willows is still discernible. At the tips of the trees are vague outlines of the distant hills—faintly recognizable at the most. And dripping through the sporadic gaps among the trees are the lights of street lamps, dimly torpid like drowsy eyes. At the moment, the most animated sounds in this scene are the singing of the cicadas in the trees and the crowing of the frogs in the water, but these joys are theirs, not mine. I have nothing!
My thoughts suddenly drift to the lotus-gathering event. The lotus-gathering event is an old southern tradition, which can arguably be traced far back in time but was the most popular in the Six Dynasties (the 3rd century to the 6th century). Details about the lotus-gathering events are are revealed, to a certain extent, in the ancient poetry. The lotus gatherings were usually maidens, who traveled on dinghies while singing love songs. There were not only a lot of lotus gatherers, but also many spectators. It must have been a joyful and romantic event. In his verse, Ode to Lotus Gathering, Emperor Yuan of Liang gave a vivid description of the scene.
Therefore,
Fine young men and fair ladies,
In a courting mood, ride dinghies.
Here they wind back the egret-shaped boats,
To pass their goblets for amorous toasts.
With the oars tangled in water leaves,
They row their dinghies through the duckweeds.
In plain skirts dangling from their waspish waists,
The girls, glancing back, move in slow gaits.
While summer proceeds, spring lingers,
With tender leaves and fresh flowers.
They giggle and hope to keep off the splash and spray,
And lift their attire in case the boats tilt and way.
This verse clearly reveals the merry spectacle of such an event. It must have been an interesting event, but we now do not have the fortune to enjoy it.
This reminds me of a few lines from The Song of Xizhou.
I went to gather lotus in South Pool,
Where the autumn lotus flowers outgrow me;
The seedpods I stoop to toy with and pull,
Are as fresh as the green water can be.
The lotus flowers in this pool tonight can also be considered high enough to “outgrow gatherers,” if there is any gatherer, yet unfortunately the water ripples are hidden from sight. This makes me nostalgic for the south. Right at this point of my thought, I suddenly raise my head and find myself already back in front of our door. I gently push the door open and walk in. Inside the house, there is not a single sound to be heard. My wife has already been sound asleep for quite some time.
朗誦：李莉
荷塘月色
朱自清
這幾天心里頗不寧靜。今晚在院子里坐著乘涼， 忽然想起日日走過的荷塘，在這滿月的光里，總該另有一番樣子吧。月亮漸漸的升高了，墻外馬路上孩子們的歡笑，已經(jīng)聽不見了；妻在屋里拍著閏兒，模模糊糊地哼著眠歌。我悄悄地披上大衫，帶上門出去。
沿著荷塘，是一條曲折的小煤屑路這是一條幽僻的路；白天也少人走，夜晚更加寂寞。荷塘四面，長著許多樹，蓊蓊郁郁的。路的一旁，是些楊柳，和一些不知道名字的樹。沒有月光的晚上，這路上陰森森的，有些怕人。今晚卻很好，雖然月光也還是淡淡的。
路上只我一人，背著手踱著。這一片天地好象是我的；我也象超出了平常的自己，到了另一個世界里。我愛熱鬧，也愛冷靜；愛群居，也愛獨處。象今晚上，一個人在這蒼茫的月下，什么都可以想，什么都可以不想，便覺是個自由的人。白天里一定要做的事，一定要說的話，現(xiàn)在都可以不理。這是獨處的妙處；我且受用這無邊的荷香月色好了。
曲曲折折的荷塘上面，彌望的是田田的葉子。葉子出水很高，象亭亭的舞女的裙。層層的葉子中間，零星地點綴著些白花，有裊娜地開著的，有羞澀地打著朵的；正如一粒粒的明珠， 又如碧天里的星星。微風(fēng)過處，送來縷縷清香， 仿佛遠處高樓上渺茫的歌聲似的。這時候葉子與花也有一絲的顫動，象閃電般，霎時傳過荷塘的那邊去了。葉子本是肩并肩密密地挨著，這便宛然有了一道凝碧的波痕。葉子底下是脈脈的流水，遮住了，不能見一些顏色；而葉子卻更見風(fēng)致了。
月光如流水一般，靜靜地瀉在這一片葉子和花上。薄薄的青霧浮起在荷塘里。葉子和花仿佛在牛乳中洗過一樣；又象籠著輕紗的夢。雖然是滿月，天上卻有一層淡淡的云，所以不能朗照；但我以為這恰是到了好處－－酣眠固不可少，小睡也是別有風(fēng)味的。月光是隔了樹照過來的，高處叢生的灌木，落下參差的斑駁的黑影；彎彎的楊柳的稀疏的倩影，象是畫在荷葉上。塘中的月色并不均勻；但光與影有著和諧的旋律，如梵婀玲上奏著的名曲。
荷塘的四面，遠遠近近，高高低低都是樹，而楊柳最多。這些樹將一片荷塘重重圍??；只在小路一旁，漏著幾段空隙，象是特為月光留下的。樹色一例是陰陰的，乍看象一團煙霧；但楊柳的豐姿，便在煙霧里也辨得出。樹梢上隱隱約約的是一帶遠山，只有些大意罷了。樹縫里也漏著一兩點路燈光，沒精打采的，是渴睡人的眼。這時候最熱鬧的，要數(shù)樹上的蟬聲和水里的蛙聲；但熱鬧是他們的！我什么也沒有。
忽然想起采蓮的事情來了。采蓮是江南的舊俗，似乎很早就有，而六朝時為盛；從詩歌里可以約略知道。采蓮的是少年的女子，她們是蕩著小船，唱著艷歌去的。采蓮人不用說很多，還有看采蓮的人。那是一個熱鬧的季節(jié)，也是一個風(fēng)流的季節(jié)。梁元帝《采蓮賦》里說得好：
于是
妖童媛女，蕩舟心許；
鷁首徐回，兼?zhèn)饔鸨?/p>
欋將移而藻掛，船欲動而萍開。
爾其纖腰束素，遷延顧步；
夏始春余，葉嫩花初，
恐沾裳而淺笑，畏傾船而斂裾。
可見當時嬉游的光景了。這真是有趣的事，可惜我們現(xiàn)在早已無福消受了。
于是又記起《西洲曲》里的句子：
采蓮南塘秋，蓮花過人頭；低頭弄蓮子，蓮子清如水。今晚若有采蓮人，這兒的蓮花也算得"過人頭"了；只不見一些流水的影子，是不行的。這令我到底惦著江南了。--這樣想著，猛一抬頭，不覺已是自己的門前；輕輕地推門進去，什么聲息也沒有，妻已睡熟好久了。
朗誦：李莉
譯者簡介
徐英才，原復(fù)旦英語教師，現(xiàn)美國德寶大學(xué)漢學(xué)老師，主講過語言、文學(xué)、藝術(shù)、哲學(xué)等在內(nèi)的諸多科目?，F(xiàn)任華人詩學(xué)會會長，漢英雙語紙質(zhì)詩刊《詩殿堂》總編，有多部譯著出版，其中漢英譯著《英譯唐宋八大家散文精選》和《英譯中國經(jīng)典散文選》曾由中國贈送美國林肯中學(xué)。
Xu Yingcai, a former Fudan English teacher, now a teacher of Chinese Studies in DePaul University, President of Chinese Poetry Association, and Editor-in-Chief for Poetry Hall – A Chinese and English bilingual journal, has multiple translation books published. His translations Selected Translation of Eight Tang & Song Prose Masters and Selected Translation of Chinese Prose Classics were once the gifts Chinese government gave to Lincoln High School USA.
朗誦者簡介
李莉，畢業(yè)于北京大學(xué)計算機科學(xué)技術(shù)系軟件專業(yè)。1999年從北京移民加拿大。現(xiàn)在多倫多某保險公司任數(shù)據(jù)架構(gòu)師，從事數(shù)據(jù)交易數(shù)據(jù)倉庫等數(shù)據(jù)模型的研究設(shè)計和建立。華詩會理事，雙語紙質(zhì)詩刊《詩殿堂》編輯。數(shù)與字皆喜，文與理兼修，在知識的海洋里浸其內(nèi)，樂其中!
Lily Li，graduated from Computer Science and Technology of Beijing University. She immigrated to Toronto from Beijing in 1999. As a Data Architect, she is engaged in data model architectural design and establishment at an insurance company. She is a board committee member of Chinese Poetry Association，and an editor of Chinese and English bilingual Poetry Hall journal. She is interested in both numbers and words, science and literature, she enjoys the good time of diving and swimming in the ocean of knowledge.
華語詩學(xué)會理事會組織機構(gòu)
會 長：徐英才
副會長：冰花、張庭、顏海峰
秘書長：李莉
成 員: (按拼音排列) 冰花、焦海麗、李莉、虔謙、徐英才、薛凱、顏海峰、張庭
華語詩學(xué)會?？对姷钐谩肪幬蓡T
總 編：徐英才
副 總 編：張 庭
內(nèi)容總監(jiān)：冰 花
主 編：虔 謙（新詩部）
主 編：天 端（古詩部）
主 編：焦海麗（評訪部）
主 編：魏建國（詩論部）
主 編：李 莉（配音部）
副主編：焦海麗（新詩部）
副主編：耿 慧、申美英（古詩詞）
副主編：李 莉（評訪部）
編 輯：(按拼音排列) 達文、李玥，歐路行、釋圣靜、無定河、西鷹、杰福瑞張
英語詩歌編輯部
主 任：薛 凱
主 編：Sylvia Cavanaugh
副主編：Lisa Vihos
編 輯：Gerry Brauer, James Burton, Danny Fahey, Cheryl Hamann, Scott Mills, Judy Rowe, Sheryl Slocum (按字母順序排列)
翻譯部
翻譯主編：李正栓、史潘榮、張智中(按拼音排列)
執(zhí)行主編：丁立群、段冰知、吳偉雄、任誠剛、石永浩、解斌、顏海峰、葉如鋼、楊秀波、楊中仁、于元元、張瓊、張俊鋒、張紫涵、趙宜忠（拼音排序）
文宣拓展部
部長：薛凱
微信微刊分部
主任：焦海麗
副主任：耿慧、鄧玉蘭、星星
中國文宣拓展分部
主任：無定河
副主任：釋圣靜
國際文宣拓展分部
主任：Cheryl Hamann
副主任：李玥
刊頭書法：徐英才
本期編輯：耿慧
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