La Société des Flâneurs Sans Frontières

My friend Edouard died of brain tumor on Saturday morning in Paris, he was 37.

Burial Songs

Tao Yuanming

Translation: David Hinton

1

Whatever will live will die. I died

young, though not shortchanged by fate.

Last night, I was like anyone else.

This morning I’m listed among ghosts.

The spirit thins away who knows where,

leaving a dry body inside hollow timber.

Looking for their father, my pampered

children cry. Friends touch me, sobbing.

But I’ll never know gain and loss again,

or worry over good and evil. After

some thousand autumns or ten thousands

years, who knows honor from disgrace?

Of my time in the world, I only regret

drinking so often without enough wine.

2

I used to live without wine. Now my

cup’s brimful – and for what? This

spring wine’s crowned with foam,

but how will I ever taste it again?

Delicacies crowd the altar before me,

and at my side, those I love sob.

I speak – it’s a mouth of silence.

I look – eyes of darkness. I slept

beneath high ceilings; now I’ll stay

in a waste village of weeds. I’ll

set out this morning, leaving our gate

behind, and never find my way back.

3

Boundless – in the boundless, weed-ridden

wastes, white poplars moan in the wind.

In bitter ninth-month frost, come to this

distant place – it’s farewell. All four directions

empty, not a house in sight, looming

gravemounds peak and summit. Wind

moaning to itself in the branches here,

horses rear up, crying out toward heaven.

Once this dark house is all closed up,

day won’t dawn again in a thousand years.

Day won’t dawn again in a thousand years,

and what can all our wisdom do about it?

Those who were just here saying farewell

return to their separate homes. And though

my family may still grieve, the others

must be singing again by now. Once you’re

dead and gone, what then? Trust yourself

to the mountainside. It will take you in.

陶渊明：挽歌三首

其一∶

有生必有死，早终非命促。

昨暮同为人，今旦在鬼录。

魂气散何之？枯形寄空木。

娇儿索父啼，良友抚我哭。

得失不复知，是非安能觉！

千秋万岁后，谁知荣与辱。

但恨在世时，饮酒不得足。

其二∶

昔在无酒饮，今但湛空觞。

春醪生浮蚁，何时更能尝。

肴案盈我前，亲旧哭我傍。

欲语口无音，欲视眼无光。

昔在高堂寝，今宿荒草乡。

一朝出门去，归来夜未央。

其三∶

荒草何茫茫，白杨亦萧萧。

严霜九月中，送我出远郊。

四面无人居，高坟正嶣峣。

马为仰天鸣，风为自萧条。

幽室一已闭，千年不复朝。

千年不复朝，贤达无奈何！

向来相送人，各自还其家。

亲戚或馀悲，他人亦已歌。

死去何所道，托体同山阿。

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