Flowers Bloom beyond the Doors Fragrance Flutters beyond the Shores

2017-07-03CompiledbyXuKuang

Special Focus 2017年3期

关键词：外国李白古诗词

Compiled by Xu Kuang

Translated by Chase Coulson

Flowers Bloom beyond the Doors Fragrance Flutters beyond the Shores

Compiled by Xu Kuang

Translated by Chase Coulson

Ancient Chinese poetry enchants every poetry lover’s soul at home and abroad

《中国诗词大会》引发读诗热潮

“Beauty vies not with fair spring, but pronounces the rebirth it will bring.”

The second series of televisedChinese Poetry Conferencetook place during the Chinese Spring Festival period in 2017. All the talented contestants gave the Chinese audience a cultural treat, and let them taste the magnificence of the traditional Chinese festival.

With its unique enchantment, Chinese poetry has been widely read and appreciated throughout the whole country for millennia. Not only has it influenced the people of China, it has also played an integral role in Sino-foreign cultural exchanges. Many a non-Chinese has been deeply moved by the mellifluous grace of Chinese poetry.

In this TV program, two foreign contestants deeply impressed the Chinese audience: One being Li Yixing, a young female student from Singapore who defeated Wu Yishu, the most promising teenage contestant in this competition, and won in a landslide victory; the other being Wu Danran, an American college student and adoring fan of Mao Zedong’s poetry. Throughout the program, they couldn’t have appeared more relaxed. In picking up the gauntlet, Li Yixing didn’t even bat an eyelash, and Wu Danran’s big, bright, innocent eyes wooed audiences and judges alike. What was most striking was the purity of their love for Chinese poetry.

Li Yixing studies at the Chinese Department in Peking University, and has been fond of ancient Chinese poetry since childhood. Having seen the poetry competition information posted by her fellow exchange students, in the spirit of adventure she decided to sign up. After a telephone interview, she was given placement among the talented cast of 106 challengers.

When Li Yixing was 12, her mother began to teach her to recite her favorite Chinese poems, and her interest in poetry blossomed like a rose. Poetry began to permeate her life and became her companion and friend on which her emotions reposed. Love of poetry was also a core reason for her to study Chinese in Peking University. “In Singapore, fondness for poetry was a lonesome pursuit, because it was hard to find friends of like minds. But participating in this program has allowed me to meet a group of poetry lovers who are immersed in the world of poetry together—I consider it a blessing.” Said Li Yixing.

Wu Danran, a young man from the United States who is now studying in Beijing Foreign Studies University, was recommended by one of his teachers to participate in this program owing to his profound fondness for Chinese poetry.

Danran attended some Chinese classes in high school in the United States where he had a Chinese teacher from Shanghai who organized a mini Chinese Spring Festival Gala for her students. Luckily his class was chosen to deliver a recitation of Li Bai’s poemA Tranquil Night. Since then he has been passionately enamored with Chinese poetry, and the experience has prompted him to purchase volumes and volumes of Chinese poetry from which he continues to learn the art.

Danran is particularly fond of the exquisite poetry of former Chairman Mao

“俏也不争春，只把春来报”。2017年春节期间，《中国诗词大会（第二季）》，用一种中国人的方式，让观众度过一个中国传统佳节。

中华诗词，以其独特魅力传诵千年，不但感染国人，在中外文化交流中也扮演着极为重要的角色，不少外国小伙伴折服于这东方的诗意。

该节目中，有两位外国选手给观众留下深刻印象。一个是击败武亦姝攻擂成功的新加坡女大学生李宜幸，一位是热爱毛泽东诗词的美国大学生伍淡然。他们在比赛中表现得一派轻松，李宜幸攻擂的过程眉头都不皱一下，伍淡然也是表现呆萌，令人感触的是他们对中国诗词的纯粹热爱。

李宜幸就读于北京大学中文系，自幼喜欢中国古诗词，看到有同学在留学生群里发了报名资讯，就抱着尝试的心态报名，通过电话面试，加入百人团。

Zedong. Reading the lines, he was filled with the raw and unrestrained emotion imbued with the power of surging waves under the full moon’s tide, as if fire was coursing through his veins. When speaking about how he felt when first encountering the poetry of Mao Zedong, Wu Danran quipped, “It was like I was there with them, marching right alongside Chairman Mao and the vast scores of people on the Long March, with red flags and golden stars waving over the scene.”Ultimately, it was a deep love of Chinese poetry that actually changed the course of the two foreign contestants’ lives. Now, the popularity of the Chinese Poetry Conference has been extended even to foreign countries. It was reported by thepaper.cn on February 17th, 2017 that a warm and lively discussion and debate over Chinese poetry had been conducted among the poetry aficionados on two popular online forums: Reddit and Quora.

On Quora, a question was posted, “What is the most beautiful Chinese poetry you’ve ever read?”There was a flurry of replies by poetry zealots.

On Reddit, many foreigners enthusiastically shared their love of ancient Chinese poetry. A Reddit online contributor, “gndowns” said, “I’ve been having a lot of fun lately learning through poetry, analyzing lines and translations and such, but I can’t always find good materials. Does anybody have a personal favorite poem that they want to share?”

Netizen “Charl” recounted a moving story, “The reason why this poem is special to me is that it was a gift sent by a Dutch woman on death’s doorstep. When I was about 13 years old, I met her near our family farm. She had long ago lost her husband, and was given over to alcoholism. But she was a very learned literary enthusiast. In her last few weeks, she bestowed aCollection of Li Bai’s Poemsto my family, which was presumably a way to thank my father for his medical attention. And she copied one of Li’s poems at the preface of the collection.”

From a carafe of wine among the blossoms I sip alone, not a soul’s company.

Raising a cup, my shadow and the moon make one into three.

My shadow follows and plays, but the moon refuses to drink with me.

The moment the moon and shadow accompany, I make merry in the fleeting spring.

I sing as the moon lingers overhead, I dance as my shadow begins a blurring.

As I awake the moon shares my joy, as I drink I’m dazed and all begins to fade.

I toast to my eternal spectral friends, to meet again among the silver stars and skies of jade.

At the end of the post, the netizen sighed with deep emotion, “This poem really embodies life in how it is tinged with such melancholy and sadness, yet at the same time there was also an unforgettable and wonderful chapter to this woman’s life, which is like a great tragedy, and she was like an actress taking her final bow before the final curtain was drawn on her life.”

Li Bai and Du Fu’s poetry in Tang Dynasty are best remembered by non-Chinese netizens.

A Reddit user expressed that one of his most favorite poems was Li Bai’sLeaving White Dragon City at Dawn.

At the golden luminance of dawn’s early clouds I bid farewell to White Dragon City,

for the day’s journey of a hundred miles I venture on the trek back to Jiangling.

The call of the monkeys and macaques is resonant on the banks behind me,

as I board a rowboat that has crossed a thousand rivers, it begins to sway and swing.

This same netizen gushed about his great esteem for Li Bai, “Li Bai (701-762) is my all-time favorite Chinese poet. From ancient times he is widely regarded as a pre-eminent literary genius and a romanticist who has elevated the traditional poetry of China to new heights.”

Another netizen said he appreciated Du Fu (712-770), a poet who was deeply concerned with ordinary people’s lives, the most. He in particular referred to one of his long-stanza poems,From Chang’an to Fengxian—a Five-Hundred-Character Verse.李宜幸十二岁时，妈妈开始教她背诵自己喜欢的诗词，耳濡目染之下萌生兴趣，渐渐诗词渗透在她的生活里，成为喜怒哀乐的寄托，不离不弃的良伴。对诗词的爱好，也是她到北京大学就读中文系的重要原因。“以前喜欢诗词，是很孤独的，因为在新加坡的环境，很少有同好。参加这个节目，能和一些志同道合的朋友浸润在诗词的氛围里，真觉得是一件幸事。”李宜幸说。

来自美国的小伙子伍淡然在北京外国语大学就读，因为对诗词有兴趣，被学校老师推荐参赛。

在美国上中学时，伍淡然修读中文课，有个来自上海的老师，办了一台春节联欢晚会，他所在的班表演李白的《静夜思》。从那时候开始，伍淡然便爱上中国诗词，买了很多书自学。

●Wu Danran

●Li Yixing

伍淡然最喜欢毛泽东诗词，喜欢诗中壮丽澎湃、激动人心的词句，读诗时他感觉热血沸腾。伍淡然说：“我感觉能看到当时的情景，长征的场面，红旗飘扬。”

可以说，对中国诗词的热爱，影响了两位外国选手的人生轨迹。

《中国诗词大会》热度也延伸到了国外。据澎湃新闻17日报道，近来，在Reddit和Quora两个论坛上，许多外国的诗歌爱好者就中国诗词展开许多有趣且生动的讨论。

Quora上，有个帖子讨论“你读过最美的中国诗歌是什么？”网友们踊跃回答。

Reddit上，也有学中文的外国网友分享喜爱的中国古诗词。

网友gndowns说：我最近学中国诗歌觉得很有意思，研究诗句和翻译之类的。大家有没有喜欢的诗歌分享？

网友Charl讲述了一个感人的故事，“这一首之所以特别，是因为来自别人的馈赠。那是我大约十三岁时，家里的农场附近有一个上了年纪的荷兰妇女，她失去丈夫许多年，并渐渐染上酗酒。然而，她同时又是一个极富教养的文学爱好者。在生命的最后几个星期，她向我们家赠送一本李白诗集，大概是为了感谢父亲对她的医疗帮助，她在诗集前留下一张字条。”

花间一壶酒，独酌无相亲。

举杯邀明月，对影成三人。

月既不解饮，影徒随我身。

暂伴月将影，行乐须及春。

我歌月徘徊，我舞影零乱。

醒时同交欢，醉后各分散。

永结无情游，相期邈云汉。

作者在结尾深情地说：“通过这首诗，我们看到她如何总结自己的一生。两者都是悲剧性的，并且里面有一个部分让人无论如何难以忘怀，她在活着和毁灭时都是一个艺术家。”

被外国网友提及最多的是唐代诗人李白和杜甫。

Reddit上一位网友表示他最喜欢的是李白的《早发白帝城》。

In people’s eyes, poetry always seems to only tackle the themes of romance and love. ButFrom Chang’an to Fengxianreveals that a poet’s talents and thoughts can extend to other social topics.

Let’s all enjoy an excerpt from this long poem:

Inside, guests are beguiled to eat humpback hoof stew,

Outside, frosted oranges and sweet tangerines lay strew.

The stench of rotting wine and meat lingers behind Vermilion chalets,

while the bones of the dead lay upon the road covered in frozen glaze.

The opulence of wealth and the paupers’deaths are only inches apart,

the agony of the scene and pangs of remorse lay heavy upon my heart.

It is plain to see that foreign friends understand Chinese poetry in their own way, and have become awakened to its profound connotations. The passion in ancient Chinese poetry, like a stream of purity, is enchanting each and every poetry lover’s soul. The beauty and magnificence of ancient Chinese poetry should not only blossom in its native land, but its radiance should also burst forth and shine a beaconing light across the entire globe, allowing it to be known and shared by all lovers of beauty and aesthetics worldwide.

朝辞白帝彩云间，

千里江陵一日还。

两岸猿声啼不住，

轻舟已过万重山。

他还在论坛科普了一下李白：我最喜欢的中国诗歌来自李白（701–762），他从古至今都被视为一位天才，是一位把中国传统诗歌形式推向新高度的浪漫主义人物。

还有网友表示喜欢胸怀天下的杜甫，提到杜甫的长篇作品《自京赴奉先县咏怀五百字》。谁说诗歌非要描写风花雪月？这首诗同样展示了诗人丰富的思想情感。

我们来欣赏下这首长诗的节选：

劝客驼蹄羹，

霜橙压香橘。

朱门酒肉臭，

路有冻死骨。

荣枯咫尺异，