The Son of Heaven in Yuanhe times was martial as a god
And might be likened only to the Emperors Xuan and Xi.
He took an oath to reassert the glory of the empire,
And tribute was brought to his palace from all four quarters.
Western Huai for fifty years had been a bandit country,
Wolves becoming lynxes, lynxes becoming bears.
They assailed the mountains and rivers, rising from the plains,
With their long spears and sharp lances aimed at the Sun.
But the Emperor had a wise premier, by the name of Du,
Who, guarded by spirits against assassination,
Hong at his girdle the seal of state, and accepted chief command,
While these savage winds were harrying the flags of the Ruler of Heaven.
Generals Suo, Wu, Gu, and Tong became his paws and claws;
Civil and military experts brought their writingbrushes,
And his recording adviser was wise and resolute.
A hundred and forty thousand soldiers, fighting like lions and tigers,
Captured the bandit chieftains for the Imperial Temple.
So complete a victory was a supreme event;
And the Emperor said: "To you, Du, should go the highest honour,
And your secretary, Yu, should write a record of it."
When Yu had bowed his head, he leapt and danced, saying:
"Historical writings on stone and metal are my especial art;
And, since I know the finest brush-work of the old masters,
My duty in this instance is more than merely official,
And I should be at fault if I modestly declined."
The Emperor, on hearing this, nodded many times.
And Yu retired and fasted and, in a narrow workroom,
His great brush thick with ink as with drops of rain,
Chose characters like those in the Canons of Yao and Xun,
And a style as in the ancient poems Qingmiao and Shengmin.
And soon the description was ready, on a sheet of paper.
In the morning he laid it, with a bow, on the purple stairs.
He memorialized the throne: "I, unworthy,
Have dared to record this exploit, for a monument."
The tablet was thirty feet high, the characters large as dippers;
It was set on a sacred tortoise, its columns flanked with ragons...
The phrases were strange with deep words that few could understand;
And jealousy entered and malice and reached the Emperor --
So that a rope a hundred feet long pulled the tablet down
And coarse sand and small stones ground away its face.
But literature endures, like the universal spirit,
And its breath becomes a part of the vitals of all men.
The Tang plate, the Confucian tripod, are eternal things,
Not because of their forms, but because of their inscriptions...
Sagacious is our sovereign and wise his minister,
And high their successes and prosperous their reign;
But unless it be recorded by a writing such as this,
How may they hope to rival the three and five good rulers?
I wish I could write ten thousand copies to read ten thousand times,
Till spittle ran from my lips and calluses hardened my fingers,
And still could hand them down, through seventy-two generations,
As corner-stones for Rooms of Great Deeds on the Sacred Mountains.
Original Poem:
「韩碑」
李商隐
元和天子神武姿， 彼何人哉轩与羲，
誓将上雪列圣耻， 坐法宫中朝四夷。
淮西有贼五十载， 封狼生貙貙生罴；
不据山河据平地， 长戈利矛日可麾。
帝得圣相相曰度， 贼斫不死神扶持。
腰悬相印作都统， 阴风惨澹天王旗。
愬武古通作牙爪， 仪曹外郎载笔随。
行军司马智且勇， 十四万众犹虎貔。
入蔡缚贼献太庙。 功无与让恩不訾。
帝曰汝度功第一， 汝从事愈宜为辞。
愈拜稽首蹈且舞， 金石刻画臣能为。
古者世称大手笔， 此事不系于职司。
当仁自古有不让， 言讫屡颔天子颐。
公退斋戒坐小阁， 濡染大笔何淋漓。
点窜尧典舜典字， 涂改清庙生民诗。
文成破体书在纸， 清晨再拜铺丹墀。
表曰臣愈昧死上， 咏神圣功书之碑。
碑高三丈字如斗， 负以灵鳌蟠以螭。
句奇语重喻者少， 谗之天子言其私。
长绳百尺拽碑倒。 粗沙大石相磨治。
公之斯文若元气， 先时已入人肝脾。
汤盘孔鼎有述作， 今无其器存其辞。
呜呼圣皇及圣相， 相与烜赫流淳熙。
公之斯文不示后， 曷与三五相攀追？
愿书万本诵万过， 口角流沫右手胝；
传之七十有二代， 以为封禅玉检明堂基。
Interpretation:
This poem is a masterpiece of Li Shangyin’s poetry, which has historically been praised by all, and it has three praised points of amazement.
Firstly, the type of poem is peculiar. Yi Shan to seven metre famous, this piece is he did less seven ancient, and up to fifty-two lines, three hundred and sixty-six words.
Secondly, the style of the poem is strange. This poem is both Hanbei as the object of song, that is, deliberately simulated and similar to Han Yu poetry style: prose culture, narrative, such as a monument, very concise; read harmoniously, the gas Xiong Li force; structural rigour and wave crags, from the Son of Heaven intention of the shame into the pen, meandering to write, mixed with narratives and discussion, pouring the heart of the song.
Third, the poem’s mood is peculiar. The surface layer of meaning in praise of Hanbei, Shen said Hanbei was destroyed its text does not die of reason, and contains all the slanders hold the deep heart of injustice; the second layer of meaning in the police towns, so that do not forget Wu Yuanji’s mistakes, or still have allegorical reality, support for the leveling of the clan, unity and opposition to condone the division of the political opinion; the third layer of the meaning of the most wonderful, it is to show the poetic talent.
Han Bei: refers to Han Yu’s “Pinghuaixi Bei”. Since Yuanhe 814, the battle against Wu Yuanji, the rebel town of Huaixi, was delayed due to the inefficiency of the generals, and it was only in October of the twelfth year, under the command of the chancellor Pei Du, that Wu Yuanji was captured alive in a night attack on Caizhou by the general Li Su. In December, Han Yu was ordered to write the “Pinghuaixi Stele”, which described Peidu’s achievements. Li Suo was not convinced, and his wife appealed to the emperor. Emperor Xianzong ordered Duan Wenchang, a Hanlin scholar, to rewrite the stele and flatten and pull down Han’s stele. Li Shangyin used this incident as the title of his poem “Han Stele”.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
