中国文化典籍英译

The water plants are long and short,
Here and there they can be caught;
The lovely girl with frail appeal,
He’ll befriend with zither and zeal.
The water plants are long and short,
Then Nuwa melted rocks of five colors and used them to mend the cracks in the sky. She supported the four corners of the sky with the legs she had cut off from a giant turtle. She killed the black dragon to save the people of Jizhou, and blocked the flood with the ashes of reeds.
Day and night he would her recall.
The first courtship comes to bay,
He longs for her wildly night and day.
The lingering longing grips him tight,
He tosses, unable to sleep at night.
苍天补，四极正，淫水涸，冀州平；狡虫死，颛民生，背方州，抱圆天。当此之时，禽兽虫蛇，无不匿其爪牙，藏其蛰毒，无有攫噬之心。
考其功烈，上际九天，下契黄垆，名声被后世，光辉熏万物。
Nuwa Mends the Sky
By Liu An
In ancient times, the four corners of the sky collapsed and the world with its nine regions split open.The sky could not cover all the things under it, nor could the earth carry all the things on it.A great fire raged and would not die out; a fierce flood raced about and could not be checked.Savage beasts devoured innocent people; vicious birds preyed on the weak and old.
Nuwa’s deeds benefited the heavens above and the earth below. Her name was remembered by later generations and her light shone on every creation.
Trans. by Ding Wangdao
Here and there they can be stored.
The lovely girl is slenderly tall,
With bells and drums he wins her after all.
Trans. by Gu Zhengkun
4.楚辞（Elegies of Chu,Songs of Chu,The Verse of Chu,Chu Ci）
The Man Who Draws a Snake and Adds Feet to It
By Liu Xiang
A native ofChuafter worshipping his ancestors gave his retainers a pot of wine. One of the retainers said, “It’s insufficient for all of us, but too much for one of us. I suggest, therefore, that we draw snakes on the ground, and the one who first finished drawing the snake will win the pot of wine.”
His-ho: Charioteer of the sun, generally represented as female.
Yen-tzǔ: Mountain of the far west where the sun goes beneath the earth.
5.老子《道德经》（Lao Zi，The Way and Its Power）---道家（Taoism）
诗经·国风
周南·关雎
关关雎鸠，在河之洲；
窈窕淑女，君子好逑。
参差荇菜，左右流之；
窈窕淑女，寤寐求之；
求之不得，寤寐思服；
悠哉游哉，辗转反侧。
参差荇菜，左右采之；
窈窕淑女，琴瑟友之。
参差荇菜，左右芼之；
窈窕淑女，钟鼓乐之。
Ospreys
Hark! The ospreys merrily call
On the islet off the river shore.
Trans. by David Hawkes
Ts’ang-wu: Name of the region where Ch’ung Hua (Shun) was buried.
Hsüan Pu, the “hanging garden”; in theMagicMountainof K’un-lun, which is God’s seat on earth and the doorway into heaven.
In the morning I started on my way fromTs’ang-wu;
In the evening I came to theGardenofParadise.
I wanted to stay a while in those fairy precincts,
But the swift-moving sun was dipping to the west.
Grieving that I was born in such an unlucky time.
I plucked soft lotus petals to wipe my welling tears,
That fell down in rivers and wet my coat front.
I knelt on my outspread skirts and poured my plaint out,
Ch’u Tzǔ: The Song of the South, An Ancient Chinese Anthology
By ChüYuan
Li Sao (On Encountering Sorrow) (excerpted)
Many a heavy sigh I heaved in despair,
离骚:Grief of Parting
楚辞
[战国屈原]
离骚（节选）
曾歔欷余郁悒兮，
哀朕时之不当。
揽茹蕙以掩涕兮，
沾余襟之浪浪。
跪敷衽以陈辞兮，
耿吾既得此中正。
驷玉虬以乘鹥兮，
溘埃风余上征。
朝发轫于苍梧兮，
夕余至乎县圃。
欲少留此灵锁兮，
日忽忽其将暮。
吾令羲和弭节兮，
望崦嵫而勿迫。
路曼曼其修远兮，
吾将上下而求索。
The girl is lovely and slenderly tall,
Whom the gentleman would adore.
The water plants are long and short,
Here and there they can be sought;
The lovely girl is slenderly tall,
And the righteousness within me was clearly manifest.
I yoked a team of jade dragons to a phoenix-figured car
And waited for the wind to come, to soar up on my journey.
2.寓言（fable）

楚有祠者，赐其舍人卮酒。舍人相谓曰：“数人饮之不足，一人饮之有余。请画地为蛇，先成者饮酒。”
一人蛇先成，引酒且饮之，乃左手执卮，右手画蛇，曰：“吾能为之足！”未成，一人之蛇成，夺其卮，曰：“蛇固无足，子安能为之足？”遂饮其酒。
为蛇足者，终亡其酒。
Thus the sky was mended,its four corners lifted, the flood tamed, Jizhou pacified, and harmful birds and beasts killed, and the innocent people were able to live on the square earth under the dome of the sky. It was a time when birds, beasts, insects and snakes no longer used their claws or teeth or poisonous stings, for they did not want to catch or eat weaker things.
中国文化典籍英译
An Anthology of Chinese Masterpieces in English Translation I