Han Yu: So Minute, Lingering, Sweet, Low And So Tender -- just Like A Loving Couple's Soft, Whispering Manner. 韓愈 昵昵兒女語，恩怨相爾汝。劃然變軒昂，勇士赴敵場。 Poem by Frank Yue

TING YING SHI TAN QIN:
On Hearing (Indian) Monk Ying Playing The Qin
-- by Han Yu (768 - 824）
-- Translated by Frank C Yue

So minute, lingering, sweet, low and so tender --
Just like a loving couple's soft, whispering manner.
Suddenly, there come violent and thunderous sounds,
Like brave warriors charging forth in battle all around.
Like floating willow catkins, drifting clouds in the sky --
Music notes dance in the winds so far, so wide, so high.

While a hundred birds are there gayly chirping away,
Above the crowd, only the lone phoenix's shrill songs stay.
The notes climb up the highest scale, to no more avail;
Then, they fall a thousand feet abruptly (like a dead sail) .
Though (like everyone else) I have two ears on my head,
Of string or woodwind music I know nothing instead.

Of Monk Ying's fine performance I have heard ever since,
I keep standing or sitting by the side of his qin.
Quickly, I push at the Monk's hands to stop him playing --
For my clothes are all wet, and my tears keep a-falling.
O Monk Ying, you're for sure an apt musician, but Why,
With great ice and fire, are you tormenting my inside?


《聽穎師彈琴》 唐 • 韓愈
　　
昵昵兒女語， 恩怨相爾汝。
　　 劃然變軒昂， 勇士赴敵場。
　　 浮雲柳絮無根蒂，天地闊遠隨飛揚。
　　
喧啾百鳥群， 忽見孤鳳凰。
　　 躋攀分寸不可上，失勢一落千丈強。
　　 嗟余有兩耳， 未省聽絲篁。
　　
自聞穎師彈， 起坐在一旁。
　　 推手遽止之， 濕衣淚滂滂。
　　 穎師爾誠能， 無以冰炭置我腸！