In the fine Chinese tradition of commenting on the commentaries to an original work, here's another Chinese elegy translated into Portuguese by Camilo Pessanha, with comments by yours truly on the original poem and Pessanha's interpretation. Like the first, it is the work of 王守仁 Wang Shouren, better known as 王陽明 Wang Yangming. Wang wasn't known for his poetry, but for his contributions to neo-Confucian thought, so I'm not sure why the individual who assembled this short collection decided to include two of his poems; perhaps he chose them to remind the recipient of the book of the importance of poetry in a scholar-bureaucrat's life, or there was something within the poems that resonated with him.
The 江 jiang referred to in the poem is none other than the 長江 Yangtze, and the titular 閱江樓 River-Gazing Tower, located near 南京 Nanjing, appears to not have actually existed until recently, which is kind of weird given that it's been referred to in Chinese sources since the Ming dynasty. Pessanha calls it a "miradouro," which is a scenic overlook rather than a particular kind of structure, but in context it makes sense. (Incidentally, there are a number of miradouros scattered around Lisbon, and even a few in Macau.) Pessanha says that the 新亭 "New Pavilion," which dates back to the 晉 Jin dynasty and thus is not old at all, was a gathering place for patriotic poets to mourn the woes befalling their country, and was also located on the Yangtze.
I don't think the River-Gazing Tower and the abandoned tower discussed in the poem are the same place, but they serve analogous poetic functions in that they both represent the kinds of far-flung postings
Chinese officials might expect to receive sometime during the course of
their careers. Climbing the River-Gazing Tower, our poet recalls a similar place, one separated by a great deal of time and space and steeped in the grandeur of imperial China's early years (the Han dynasty, founded by 漢高祖 Han Gaozu, who's the 高皇 Great Han Emperor mentioned in the poem, was China's second imperial dynasty).
Pessanha links 道德, the "virtue of the way," to the emperor, something I didn't do but maybe should have; after all, Wang Yangming wouldn't have been talking about 道德 in a Daoist context, i.e., 道德 as referenced in the title of the 道德經 Daodejing/Tao Te Ching. I think my rendering of the line about the tower's defenses sounds more poetic, since Pessanha decoupled 虛, generally read as "empty," as from 天, "sky" or "heaven," and used it in a broader sense to apply to 塹 "moat," whereas I applied 虛天 to 塹 and got, literally "empty sky moat." I considered the possibility that the moat was "empty to the sky," but liked the image of the sheer emptiness surrounding the tower serving as a moat better.
蠻夷 are the Man and Yi peoples, the sort of non-Han "barbarians" that the Chinese empire was constantly worried about. Pessanha seems to think that stone walls are useless, since the place was guarded by barbarians; I read the line as the poet saying that stone walls were useless against foreign incursions, especially given how remote the place was behind its airy moat. I'm not sure which is right, though I suspect that my interpretation may be taking liberties that Wang wouldn't have, as it might be taken as criticism of imperial policy—something an orthodox bureaucrat probably would've avoided.
I'm less thrilled about my version of the last two lines, as they don't quite hit the mark (the final line especially, which feels abrupt), but Pessanha's rendering of these same lines doesn't do it for me either. In the penultimate line he ascribes certain emotions to the poet's visit that aren't explicit, but admittedly could be there since, after all, this is classical Chinese. The duplication he uses for emphasis in the last line feels unnecessary, too. That said, I like his translation overall. His grasp of the material is firm (firmer than mine, for sure), his notes give much-appreciated background information that bolsters his poetic arguments, and his reading differs enough from mine to make things interesting.
Enjoy, folks!
微臣
史大偉/D.A. Smith
王守仁 (王陽明)
登閱江樓
絕頂樓荒舊有名
高皇曾此駐龍旌
險存道德虛天塹
守在蠻夷豈石城
山色古今余王氣
江流天地變秋聲
登臨授簡誰能賦
千古新亭一愴情
---
Uang-Shau-Jen (Uang-Iang-Ming)
"Ascensão ao Miradoiro do Kiang"
Este altíssimo torreão abandonado foi outrora célebre.
Aqui plantou seus estandartes, ornados de dragões, o fundador da dinastia Han.
Defendia-o, como inultrapassável fosso, a virtude do rei... Eram supérfluos os circundantes canais.
Faziam-lhe guarda as próprias tribos bárbaras. De que serviriam muralhas de pedra?
Hoje, como então, a montanha esplende de régia majestade.
Rolam do Kiang as águas; e céu e terra confundem as suas vozes outonais.
Da comoção que sente, assomando no alto, quem poderia ordenar o poema?
Pavilhão novo, pavilhão novo! - de pungentes mágoas milenárias...
---
Wang Shouren (Wang Yangming)
"Climbing the River-Gazing Tower"
this lofty, abandoned tower was famous long ago
the dragon banners of the first Han emperor were once raised here
remote, it kept the virtue of the Way behind a moat of empty sky—
what use were stone walls in keeping out barbarians?
then, as now, the hills suffused with a regal atmosphere
the river flows on as the sounds of autumn fill heaven and earth
climbing the tower and gazing out, who could write poetry?
the new pavilion, forever mournful
No comments:
Post a Comment