Archive for February 13th, 2010

《元日》Spring Festival

《元日》

王安石


爆竹声中一岁除,

春风送暧入屠苏。

千门万户瞳瞳日,

总把新桃换旧符。


Spring Festival

Wang Anshi (Song Dynasty)

As the clattering crackers send away the old year,

A warm breeze of spring drifts into the cup of wine.

On a thousand doors, in the first rays of sunshine,

New pairs of tutelary deities in gaiety all appear.


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Is the wind that rides me, or it is I that ride the wind?

Now Liezi could ride upon the wind. Sailing happily in the cool breeze, he would go on for fifteen days before his return. Among mortals who attain happiness, such a man is rare. Yet although Liezi could dispense with walking, he would still have to depend upon something.

– Zhuangzi, Chapter I

心凝形釋,骨肉都融;不覺形之所倚,足之所履,隨風東西,猶木葉干殼。竟不知風乘我邪?我乘風乎?

列子 黄帝

My mind concentrated and my body relaxed, bones and flesh fused completely, I did not notice what my body leaned against and my feet trod, I drifted with the wind East or West, like a leaf from a tree or a dry husk, and never knew whether it was the wind that rode me or I that rode the wind.

– Lie Zi, Huang Di (Translated by Angus Charles Graham)

When my mind is concentrated, my body disperses, his bones and flesh dissolve. Being unconscious of where my body leans against and where my feet trod, I drift far and wide with the wind, just like a leaf falling from a tree and a dry husk from a trunk. Then I could not tell if it is the wind that rides me, or it is I that ride the wind?

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