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In Prison, Singing Cicadas, Luo Binwang (Tang Shi #93)
Wednesday, 26 January 2022 08:25At the palace where I’m imprisoned, across the wall to the west is the hall of Penal Affairs. Some old scholar-trees are there, like the old trees Yin Zhongwen mentions, yet I’ve also heard the judge has sweet crabapple trees like those of Zhao Po. Every evening, when the sunset shines under their shadows, the autumn cicadas sing, then quietly cease, cut off from hearing; what human heart is so different from those of ancient times that these insects’ sounds would not sorrow it? Alas!
From the west road, cicadas cry aloud—
A guest with a prisoner’s hat, my longings swell.
I can’t endure the shadows of black wings
Come here to sing “White Hair” to this old man.
In heavy dew, it’s hard for them to fly;
In strong winds, sounds are easily suppressed.
No one believes believes in lofty and unsullied—
Who will ever understand my heart?
在狱咏蝉
馀禁所禁垣西，是法厅事也。有古槐数株焉，虽生意可知，同殷仲文之古树，而听讼斯在，即周召伯之甘棠。每至夕照低阴，秋蝉疏引，发声幽息，有切尝闻；岂人心异于曩时，将虫响悲于前听？嗟乎！
西路蝉声唱，
南冠客思侵。
不堪玄鬓影，
来对白头吟。
露重飞难进，
风多响易沉。
无人信高洁，
谁为表予心。
Luo Binwang, one of the early masters of the Tang Dynasty, was imprisoned in 676 for criticizing Empress Consort Wu Zetian, who completely controlled her husband’s government. Textual note: for the first character of line 3, I accept the common alternate 不 (“not”) over my base text’s 那 (“that”). Confessional note: I dropped the second half of the preface because I was too damn tired of picking through classical prose to finish translating it—the remainder is mostly complaints about being falsely imprisoned and how no one will speak up for him.
Yes, I’m a bad translator.
The operative connotation of “west” is autumn. Idioms: “prisoner’s hat” is literally the hat of someone from the former southern kingdom of Chu, referring to a historical episode of a prince being freed from captivity, and “wings” are hair at the temples. The phrase “white hair” is double-translated because it does double-duty, pointing to the speaker’s age as well as being the title of a folk song about false accusations—only one example of the double-meanings in the poem. The last line has a rare-in-poetry explicit first-person pronoun.
---L.
From the west road, cicadas cry aloud—
A guest with a prisoner’s hat, my longings swell.
I can’t endure the shadows of black wings
Come here to sing “White Hair” to this old man.
In heavy dew, it’s hard for them to fly;
In strong winds, sounds are easily suppressed.
No one believes believes in lofty and unsullied—
Who will ever understand my heart?
在狱咏蝉
馀禁所禁垣西，是法厅事也。有古槐数株焉，虽生意可知，同殷仲文之古树，而听讼斯在，即周召伯之甘棠。每至夕照低阴，秋蝉疏引，发声幽息，有切尝闻；岂人心异于曩时，将虫响悲于前听？嗟乎！
西路蝉声唱，
南冠客思侵。
不堪玄鬓影，
来对白头吟。
露重飞难进，
风多响易沉。
无人信高洁，
谁为表予心。
Luo Binwang, one of the early masters of the Tang Dynasty, was imprisoned in 676 for criticizing Empress Consort Wu Zetian, who completely controlled her husband’s government. Textual note: for the first character of line 3, I accept the common alternate 不 (“not”) over my base text’s 那 (“that”). Confessional note: I dropped the second half of the preface because I was too damn tired of picking through classical prose to finish translating it—the remainder is mostly complaints about being falsely imprisoned and how no one will speak up for him.
Yes, I’m a bad translator.
The operative connotation of “west” is autumn. Idioms: “prisoner’s hat” is literally the hat of someone from the former southern kingdom of Chu, referring to a historical episode of a prince being freed from captivity, and “wings” are hair at the temples. The phrase “white hair” is double-translated because it does double-duty, pointing to the speaker’s age as well as being the title of a folk song about false accusations—only one example of the double-meanings in the poem. The last line has a rare-in-poetry explicit first-person pronoun.
---L.