1月9日

葬花吟
清 曹雪芹 ( 1715~1763 )

花謝花飛飛滿天，紅消香斷有誰憐？
遊絲軟繫飄春榭，落絮輕沾撲繡簾。
一年三百六十日，風刀霜劍嚴相逼；
明媚鮮妍能幾時，一朝飄泊難尋覓。
爾今死去儂收葬，未卜儂身何日喪？
儂今葬花人笑癡，他年葬儂知是誰？
試看春殘花漸落，便是紅顏老死時；
一朝春盡紅顏老，花落人亡兩不知。

──選自《紅樓夢》

January 9th

Weeping Over Fallen Blossoms
Cao Xueqing (1715 - 1763, Qing Dynasty)
English translation: Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang

As blossoms fade and fly across the sky,
Who pities the faded red, the scent that has been?
Softly the gossamer floats over spring pavilions,
Gently the willow fluff wafts the embroidered screen.

Each year for three hundred and sixty days
The cutting wind and biting frost contend.
How long can beauty flower fresh and fair?
In a single day wind can whirl it to its end.

Now you are dead I come to bury you;
None has divined the day when I shall die;
Men laugh at my folly in burying fallen flowers,
But who will bury me when dead I lie?

See, when spring draws to a close and flowers fall,
This is the season when beauty must ebb and fade;
The day that spring takes wing and beauty fades
Who will care for the fallen blossom or dead maid?

── from Hong Lou Meng (Dream of the Red Chamber)