The Art of the Personal Essay: an anthology from the classical era to
the present / selected and with an introduction by Phillip Lopate.
Book Overview
“By presenting more than seventy-five personal essays, including
influential forerunners from ancient Greece, Rome, and the Far East,
masterpieces from the dawn of the personal essay in the sixteenth
century, and a wealth of the finest personal essays from the last
four centuries, editor Phillip Lopate, himself an acclaimed essayist,
displays the tradition of the personal essay in all its historical
grandeur, depth, and diversity.”
Last week, while we were in one of the Barnes & Noble branches in
the East Coast looking for children's books for our grandsons, I found
this book, “The Art of the Personal Essay”, for myself.
“Pleasure Boat Studio” is one of the 75 essays chosen by the editor.
Ronald Egan, Professor in Chinese Literature & Aesthetics from
Harvard University, translated the essay “Pleasure Boat Studio”
written by 歐陽修, Sung Dynasty poet, essayist and scholar, on the
twelfth day of the twelfth month in the “renwu” year (Jan. 25, 1043)
歐陽修 was ranked as one of the so-called eight master of Chinese
classical prose (唐宋八大家). He was a reformer in prose seeking to
loosen the bold of the ornate, euphonic style known as “parallel
prose”. His work was also more boldly personal, relaxed (“letting my
brush write what it would”), and conversational than that of his
predecessors, as one can see in “Pleasure Boat Studio”:
“...........I converted the rooms of the eastern wing into a place for me
to spend my leisure time. I named it “Pleasure Boat Studio”. The
studio is one room across and seven rooms long (the rooms being
connected by doorway), and so to walk into my studio is just like
walking into a boat. First, in a corner of the warm room I made a hole
in the roof to let in light. Then on either side of the bright and open
unwalled rooms I installed railings to sit on or lean against. Anyone
who relaxes in my studio will find that it is just like relaxing on a boat.
The craggy stone mounds and the flowering plants and trees that I
arranged just beyond the eaves on both sides make it seem all the
more that one is drifting down the middle of a river, with the
mountains on the right facing forest on the left, all very attractive.
This, then, is why I named my studio after a boat. ........................... .”
Yeh Tze
望長安於日下，指吳會於雲間。地勢極而南溟深，天柱高而北辰遠。關山難越，誰悲失路之人？萍水相逢，儘是他鄉之客。
ReplyDelete懷帝閽而不見，奉宣室以何年？嗟乎！時運不濟，命運多舛。馮唐易老，李廣難封。屈賈誼於長沙，非無聖主；竄梁鴻於海曲，豈乏明時。所賴君子安貧，達人知命。老當益壯，甯移白首之心？窮且益堅，不墜青雲之志。酌貪泉而覺爽，處涸轍以猶歡。北海雖賒，扶搖可接；東隅已逝，桑榆非晚。孟嘗高潔，空懷報國之心；阮藉倡狂，豈效窮途之哭！
《藤王閣序》- 王勃（唐） was only 14 years old, could well be only 12 as Chinese like to add 2 years. Is it possible for a 12 y/o to write something so mature as if he had already gone through a lot in life? tl
Thanks.
ReplyDelete《舊唐書》載：
王勃「六歲解屬文，構思無滯，詞情英邁」
乃神童, 天才兒童也 !
落霞與孤鶩齊飛，秋水共長天一色 is 絕唱. Can anybody else write that?
ReplyDelete閒雲潭影日悠悠，物換星移幾度秋。
閣中帝子今何在？檻外長江空自流。
有論王常行走李唐王族間，該熟知滕王其實未死，加滕文不太可能出自青年之手，疑後人作。實「閣中帝子今何在」並不實指滕王已逝。而王早慧加少年老成，加其前因文被革，文氣若曾經滄海之老者亦無不可。
Thanks, Yehtze......tl
《蝶戀花》 歐陽修
ReplyDelete庭院深深深幾許？楊柳堆煙，簾幕無重數。
玉勒雕鞍遊冶處，樓高不見章台路。
雨橫風狂三月暮，門掩黃昏，無計留春住。
淚眼問花花不語，亂紅飛過鞦韆去。
The first sentence is like a camera zooming into the courtyard,through thickets of willow trees, hidden a lonely wife. The second sentence the camera is back to the playboy husband riding to fun places and wife looking from a higher level of their house but still can't see her husband. Poets are very skillful that as if they were directing a movie.
歐陽修，字永叔，號醉翁，晚號六一居士，廬陵（江西吉安）人。
ReplyDelete在北宋的文學革新運動中，作出了一定的貢獻。詩文之外，歐陽修也擅長填詞，清新雅麗，揮灑自如。雖沒有擺脫「裁花剪葉」的傳統風習，詞中描寫的多是離愁別恨，兒女情長；惜春賞花，時序代謝，卻摒棄了花間派的「鏤玉雕瓊」，洗刷了晚唐五代以來的脂粉氣，使詞的風格向「清疏峻潔」方面發展。清人馮煦說他「疏雋開子瞻（蘇軾），深婉開少游」，可見他在詞史上有啟後之功
《蝶戀花》 歐陽修
庭院深深深幾許？楊柳堆煙，簾幕無重數。
玉勒雕鞍遊冶處，樓高不見章台路。
雨橫風狂三月暮，門掩黃昏，無計留春住。
淚眼問花花不語，亂紅飛過鞦韆去。
The first sentence is like a camera zooming into a huge courtyard, through thickets of willows, like countless layers of curtains, hidden a lonely wife. The second sentence the camera is back to the playboy husband riding to fun places and his wife was looking from a higher floor of their house but still could not see her husband. Poets are very skillful as if they were directing a movie.....tl
Many of the Chinese poems gave me a feel of going to movies. People say at least 20-30 of them could be among the best ever lived in this world.
ReplyDelete