Wednesday 22 January 2014

七月星/九鳥 蠻,驟雨狂風萬變間 Barbaric -- The showers and howling winds


it is interesting to see how, by just mainly changing "one character" in this the shortest of chinese "ci"s, the theme of the poem is also changed. ... <" 十六字令" 開首一字乃是詞主,其餘十五字皆為她效勞,> ... 
 
 
  《十六字令 ‧ 》 七月星/九鳥


             

              驟雨狂風萬變


              聲雷動,


              急把北門


TUNE: Shí Liù Zì Lìng: "16-Character Ci "
TITLE: Mán: "Barbaric"
-- by 七月星/九鳥  
    'Seven Moon Stars'/'Nine Birds'
--  Translated by Frank C Yue
 
Barbaric --


The showers and howling winds will 
                                         come as they must,
In the midst of countless changes of 
                                           the weather.
 
Loudly roars a rolling thunder --
Quickly, I have the north-facing door shut.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Frank,
    Allow me to render mine. I hope you don't mind. This one actually is very difficult.
    I have made it rhythumic from line 2 to line 4, but not the first line.


    蠻,
    驟雨狂風萬變間,
    聲雷動,
    急把北門關。
    Barbarous,
    Sudden rain, howling wind, changing any time now,
    Thunders roaring loud,
    Hastily I close the North gate(door) some how!

    translated by Alan Ma, Jan. 23, 3014.
    Email: omega@hkftp.com
    My blog: http://walk-with-the-creator.blogspot.hk/

    Hi Frank,
    After reading many of your work from you blog and also from Andrew WF Wong's blog, you guys really recall my passion for bilateral translation for Chinese/English.
    I have therefore reopen my blog. Do give me comments. I hope to learn from you guys. I am an amteur.
    Have you ever read YK Kwan poem translation. He is my friend. I respect him very much in poem translation. He has published a book of his translation work for poems of Tang and Sung dynasty. the book is available from book store. I am not sure if it is on Internet.
    Have a good day!
    My real name is Alan. I use omega and cyberman2046 for anything on Internet since 1998.

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