Wednesday, December 03, 2014

 

Admonition

The Book of Odes, no. 206, tr. Burton Watson in The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry: From Early Times to the Thirteenth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984), p. 37:
Don't walk beside the big carriage,
you'll only get yourself dusty.
Don't brood on a hundred worries,
you'll only make yourself sick.

Don't walk beside the big carriage,
the dust will blacken and blind you.
Don't brood on a hundred worries,
you'll never reach a brighter land.

Don't walk beside the big carriage,
the dust will swallow you up.
Don't brood on a hundred worries,
you'll only weigh yourself down.
The same, tr. Arthur Waley, The Book of Songs (1937; rpt. London: Routledge, 2011), p. 321:
Don't escort the big chariot;
You will only make yourself dusty.
Don't think about the sorrows of the world;
You will only make yourself wretched.

Don't escort the big chariot;
You won't be able to see for dust.
Don't think about the sorrows of the world;
Or you will never escape from your despair.

Don't escort the big chariot;
You'll be stifled with dust.
Don't think about the sorrows of the world;
You will only load yourself with care.
The same, tr. Ezra Pound, Shih-ching: The Classic Anthology Defined by Confucius (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954), p. 122:
Let the Great Cart alone,
'ware dust.
Think not on sorrows
lest thy heart rust.

Push no great cart
lest dust enflame thine eye,
brood not on sorrows
lest joy pass by.

Push not the great wheel-spoke in moil and sweat
lest thou make thy troubles
                                         heavier yet.
The same, tr. James Legge, The Chinese Classics, Vol. IV, Part II (Hong Kong: Lane, Crawford & Co., 1871), pp. 362-363:
Do not push forward a waggon;–
You will only raise the dust about yourself.
Do not think of all your anxieties;–
You will only make yourself ill.

Do not push forward a waggon;–
The dust will only blind you.
Do not think of all your anxieties;–
You will not emerge from imperfect views.

Do not push forward a waggon;–
The dust will only becloud you.
Do not think of all your anxieties;–
You will only weigh yourself down.



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