千山獨行BEYOND A THOUSAND MOUNTAINS —
The Poetic Journey of Wen Ren
鑑賞 · 第 10 首 / 共 17

詠滕王閣

The Pavilion of Prince Teng
唐棣《滕王閣圖》 元至正十二年(1352) 美國大都會藝術博物館藏(1989.3
唐棣《滕王閣圖》 元至正十二年(1352) 美國大都會藝術博物館藏(1989.363.36) Tang Di (1287–1355), The Pavilion of Prince Teng. Yuan, 1352. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1989.363.36. Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
小序The Poet’s Preface

滕王閣因唐太宗之弟――滕王李元嬰始建得名,又因王勃詩句"落霞與孤鶩齊飛,秋水共長天一色"而流傳後世。滕王閣屢毀屢建,承載頗多歷史。丁酉夜過,聞閣中有舞樂之聲

The Pavilion of Prince Teng takes its name from Li Yuanying, Prince of Teng and younger brother of Emperor Taizong of the Tang, who first built it; it owes its enduring fame to Wang Bo's lines, "A lone duck flies with the fading sunset clouds; autumn waters and the boundless sky share one hue." Destroyed and rebuilt time and again, the pavilion carries much history. Passing by on a night in the year Dingyou, I heard music and dancing within.

原詩The Poem
滕王宴樂賴閣傳,頻毀頻興始子安。未有神童作一序,豈容紈絝記千年。名因權重而今易,才以文稱自古難。夜舞樓中誰側目,此江山亦彼江山。
作者英譯The Poet’s Own Translation
Prince Teng’s banquets live because the pavilion remains;it falls and rises again because Zian gave it words.Had no young prodigy written that preface,how could a pampered prince endure a thousand years?Power still makes a name with ease;to earn one through art has always been hard.Who turns aside now to watch the dancers in the tower?The same rivers and mountains—then as now.
註釋Annotation
  1. 滕王唐代李元嬰,滕王閣因其封號得名。
  2. 子安王勃的字;王勃為《滕王閣序》的作者。
  3. 紈絝本指精美衣褲,後常借指富貴人家的子弟。
  4. 此江山亦彼江山將眼前景物與歷史中的同一片山河疊合。
鑑賞Appreciation

詩沿著「誰因誰而留名」展開:滕王、樓閣與王勃的文章,彼此牽連而分量不同。中間兩聯將權位所得之名與文字所成之名並置。夜裡的歌舞使古今短暫重疊,末句不作判決,將問題留給依舊在場的江山。

The poem asks how a name survives: through a prince, a building, or the writing of a passing young man. Its middle couplets distinguish the visibility conferred by power from the more uncertain endurance of literary achievement. Present-day music in the pavilion briefly overlays an earlier scene of pleasure. The closing landscape holds the question without resolving it.