Saturday 10 September 2016

Some lines of poetry from Zheng Banqiao

Some days ago I stumbled upon a fragment of poetry, of which I knew nothing before: a friend asked me for an overall translation of the meaning of some Chinese characters in calligraphy on some painting he had in his house.
 After checking, I think it is a pretty enjoyable poem for anyone.

   The painting of the photo I received was in fact a copy of a painting with calligraphy of Fan Ceng 范曾 (1938 -). (You can get an idea at this link).

  But the text of the writing in calligraphy, as declared at the left end of the writing by the painter himself, comes from the Qing Dynasty: from the poems of Zheng  Xie 郑燮, better known as Zheng Banqiao 郑板桥 (1693 -1765). And what is on the painting is only a fragment. It is one of eight little poems (see full text here).

 山深人跡少
漸石瘦松肥,
云痴鹤老。 [...]



shānshen rénjì shăo  
mountain - deep - person - trace - few)
jiàn shí shòu sōng féi,
gradually - rock- meagre - pine - fat)
yún chī hè lăo. 
cloud - silly - crane - old)





Deep in the mountains 山深




Following, my translation of these verses into English and Italian.

Deep in the mountains, few are the traces of man, 
step by step, rock cliffs and luxuriant pine trees,
Silly as a cloud, wise as a crane. 

Addentrandosi nelle montagne, rare le tracce dell'uomo,
poco a poco rocce appuntite e floridi pini,
la frivolezza delle nuvole, la saggezza della gru.

   The second line plays around the opposition between  "meagre shou" and "fat fei" wich is hardly translatable, as the "meagre rock" means edgy rocks, and recalls a mountain view of cliffs and rocks; while the pine trees are luxuriant.
Rock cliffs 瘦石

   The third line also has "silly chi" which is opposed to "old lao". They are opposed because the first is linked to the concept of youth and sillyness; while the second is linked to the idea of wisdom and old age. Such is the disposition of a traveler.

  If you happen to go to Xiamen Zhongshan Park, you might see a rock on which the second and third line are engraved.

This is the photo I received, and it is, in fact, different in the end of the first line: 
here is not "few are the traces of man", but "there are a few people",
as the character for "traces" is missing. Also, the second line goes: "luxuriant pine trees and rock cliffs, as the two parts of the line are inverted here. 
Below here some links to pages with some information I used for this post.