By Steven HK Ma 馬國豪
32 Translations of Tang Dynasty (618-907CE) Poetry
Original Accompaying Illustrations
Original Echo Poems in English
The flocks are vanished far and high
A lonesome cloud yet lingers late
In mutual regard, the mountain and I
until only the mountain remains
- Li Bo 李白 (701 - 762 CE)
Overseas Chinese are often referred to as 華僑 waa4 kieu4; literally the bridge to Hua (The poetic name for the Chinese civilisation and culture, broader than borders).
We are well placed to broker conversations betwixt ducks and chickens. Whilst we are away from our ancestral hearths - for years in the goldfields of centuries past, for lifetimes in the wars, for generations in the diaspora - we remain a bridge between the past and the future, the east and the west, the metaphorical and the literal. There is beauty in that contrast and connection.
— Steven HK Ma
華僑
私たちは、鴨と鶏のあいだの対話をとりもつ、絶好の立場にあります。
祖先の炉辺を離れて久しく——
金鉱を掘った幾世紀もの年月、
戦火に生きた一生、
離散の中を生き抜いた幾世代——
それでも私たちは橋であり続けます。
過去と未来のあいだ、
東と西のあいだ、
比喩と現実のあいだをつなぐ橋。
その対比とつながりにこそ、美しさがあるのです。
【早春】
唐 · 韓愈
天街小雨潤如酥
草色遙看近卻無
最是一年春好處
絕勝煙柳滿皇都
Early Spring
Han Yu (Tang, 768 - 824 CE)
The sky-street mist, buttery rich
The verdant grass, sparse up close
Spring is the best of all seasons
Surpassing the willow-smoke capital
Kyoto Spring
Steven HK Ma
The heron in the shallows moves
Knowing no clock, no passage of days
It only knows the stones of the Kamo
and the sun and the season’s ways
春、京にて
浅瀬に佇む鷺は
時の巡りを知らず
ただ賀茂の石を知り
陽と季の道を知る
For my father, who hoped that I could
For my ex-wife, who believed that I could
For Mr. Marotus, who showed me I could
For my children, who I hope one day might
父へ——私に出来ると願ってくれた人に
元妻へ——私に出来ると信じてくれた人に
マロタス先生へ——私に出来ることを示してくれた人に
子どもたちへ——いつか出来ると願う、私の愛しい人たちへ
【夜宿】
唐 ‧ 李白
危樓高白尺
手可摘星辰
不敢高聲語
恐惊天上人
Overnight Upon the
Mountain Temple
Li Bo (Tang, 701 - 762 CE)
Precipitous shrine, a hundred li reach
My hand could pluck the constellations
I dare not raise sound nor speech
Lest I startle the hosts of heaven
At the Ma Family
Ancestral Shrine
Steven HK Ma
Generations scrawled on burned walnut husk
In cultural revolution; as peasants must
Bullets, decades and pirates divide
Still. Remaining. Stampeding wild horses ride
祖霊を祀る馬家の地にて
焦げた胡桃の殻に刻まれた、幾代の名
文化大革命にて——農民であることを強いられ
銃弾と年月と海賊が、私たちを引き裂いても
それでも——
なおも残り
なおも駆ける
荒れ狂う野馬のごとく