第一回: Chunk 5
henning
July 14, 2008, 08:23 AM posted in General DiscussionA small one today (time budget too tight):
虽 今日之茅椽蓬牖, 瓦灶绳床,其晨夕风露,阶柳庭花,亦未有妨我之襟怀笔墨者
My try (digest with care):
Despite the recent poor conditions, (茅椽蓬牖, 其晨夕风露, 瓦灶绳床, 阶柳庭花) nothing could yet stop my will to write.
Breakdown:
Although (虽) the recent (今日) [now comes all stuff that describes the living conditions)
also (亦) have not yet 未有 hindered (妨) my bosoms 我之襟怀 "pen and ink" (writing / will to write)
Here the hard part - the four components of the "living condition":
茅椽蓬牖
茅 (máo) thatch
椽 (chuán) beam/rafters
蓬 (péng) (grass), dishevelled
牖Yǒu enlighten, lattice window
--> Poor housing with a thatched roof and lattice windows
瓦灶绳床
瓦 wǎ tile
灶 zào kitchen stove
绳 shéng rope
床 chuáng bed
--> poor living conditions with a simple stove and a bed made from ropes
其
晨夕风露
晨 chén morning, dawn
夕 xī, xì evening, dusk
风 fēng wind
露 lù dew
--> the house is also not tight, wind and dew enter...
阶柳庭花
阶 jiē rank, step
柳 liǔ willow
庭 tíng courtyard
花 huā flower
--> and on the stairs grows a willow and in the courtyard flowers
--> relatively wild and uncared for
changye
July 26, 2008, 01:40 PMHi liansuo,
Your hunch is very right. Both 晨夕风露 and 阶柳庭花 don’t have negative connotations. They usually indicate “being surrounded by natural beauty”, and therefore you should separate between 茅椽蓬牖/瓦灶绳床 and 晨夕风露/阶柳庭花 when you translate this sentence, which is why 其 is placed before 晨夕风露.
In this case, I think that 其 should be translated as “其中有” in modern Chinese. As for 茅椽蓬牖 and 瓦灶绳床, they clearly imply the author's life in degradation. FYI, 蓬牖 means a window with a grass mat. Of course, there was no ‘glass’ window in those days! I hope this would help you understand the sentence.
Although (虽) my life is with 茅椽蓬牖 and 瓦灶绳床 now, there are 晨夕风露 and 阶柳庭花 in it, and they also (亦) don’t hinder (未有妨) 我之襟怀笔墨者.
P/S. Forget Latin grammar when reading Chinese. Just feel it! Feel your force!
liansuo
July 26, 2008, 02:55 PMAh, this is lovely -- much nicer now, with the writer‘s affirmation of his simple life and creative intentions!
Thank you for your permission to chuck Latin grammar -- it was never my forte but once upon a time I had to stick it onto my gut-felt translations to make them credible :) This is why I love Chinese -- because it invites those wide leaps of intuition! However, there is also a lot one simply has to be taught, just like recently -- it may look and feel ok but the tradition is different. And then there is probably more Chinese grammar than I will ever be able (and willing!) to absorb...
But really: 多 謝！！
liansuo
July 14, 2008, 11:10 AMI see exactly the same picture -- and I like the way you arranged the text -- it is almost like a series of snapshots, isn't it?
The last "shot" puzzles me a bit although I came to the same conclusion. But why are flowers in a courtyard necessarily a sign of neglect? Was there a convention of it being clean swept and not planted -- or was the willow on the steps so close (i.e. everything so cramped) that its blossoms fell into the courtyard? Maybe one of your native speakers knows? But I can live with the problem ;)