醉翁操·琅然 Sonorous, like Pebbles Dancing on Stones

醉翁操·琅然

（琅琊幽谷，山水奇丽，泉鸣空涧，若中音会，醉翁喜之，把酒临听，辄欣然忘归。既去十余年，而好奇之士沈遵闻之往游，以琴写其声，曰《醉翁操》，节奏疏宕而音指华畅，知琴者以为绝伦。然有其声而无其辞。翁虽为作歌，而与琴声不合。又依《楚词》作《醉翁引》，好事者亦倚其辞以制曲。虽粗合韵度而琴声为词所绳的，非天成也。后三十余年，翁既捐馆舍，遵亦没久矣。有庐山玉涧道人崔闲，特妙于琴，恨此曲之无词，乃谱其声，而请于东坡居士以补之云。）

琅然，清圆。

谁弹? 响空山。

无言，惟翁醉中知其天。

月明风露娟娟，人未眠。

荷蒉过山前，曰有心也哉此贤。

醉翁啸咏，声和流泉。

醉翁去后，空有朝吟夜怨。

山有时而童颠，水有时而回川。

思翁无岁年，翁今为飞仙。

此意在人间，试听徽外三两弦。

Sonorous, like Pebbles Dancing on Stones

--to the tune “ The Drinking Lord”

Chinese original: Su Shi

English version: Julia Min (Mar. 2025)

（Langya Valley is a green paradise of rolling mountains and flowing streams, where my mentor Ouyang Xiu relished the natural melodies and the company of friends over wine. A decade later, a musician, Master Shen Zun, was inspired by Xiu’s work and visited the valley with his qin, leading to the creation of the successful ci tune “The Drinking Lord”, which sensationally captured the sound of a running stream. Xiu loved the music and wrote a beautiful ci-poem for the tune. However, the rhyming lines seemed to drift apart from the musical notes. According to “The Ci-songs of Chu State”《楚词》, many musicians tried to create new tunes for the ci poem, but the music was often overshadowed by the verses. Now, over thirty years since their passing, Cui Xian, a master of qin music and a Daoist monk from Lushan Mountain (Daoist name ‘Jade Stream’), came to me in Huangzhou seeking a ci-poem to fulfil his desire to complete Shen’s ci-tune.）

Sonorous, like pebbles dancing on stones，

Softened in echo thru the valley, it’s fulfilled.

The soothing breeze whispers on moonlit hills.

Who’s playing? Only our Drinking Lord knows.

The music vibrates the hearts of dreaming dews.

Even the best ears on earth are overwhelmed.

It’s a silent symphony on a Master’s fingers—

grace of the celestial, solace for sleepless souls.

Xiu chanted here to the stream’s high and low.

Now he’s gone, his vibes linger on silent notes.

Mountains may turn bare, then green again.

Rivers may run backward, though very rare.

Xiu has left us forever, to the isle of celestials,

Yet we miss him still, chanting his ci-poems.

This tune holds his earthly joy in a proud glow,

Listen: it weaves a few strings beyond the flow.

photo from www.aboluowang.com

 Notes:

1.     “The Drinking Lord” (醉翁) – The Chinese term Zuì Wēng was coined by Ouyang Xiu as a self-deprecating yet dignified persona when he penned his famous prose, “The Drinking Lord’s Pavilion”. Zuì means "drunk" while Wēng means "old man" or "lord." There is no equivalent role in the English world. Translations such as "the old drunkard" or "the drinker" either sound crude or reduce the original to something overly generic. "The Drinking Lord" shows a strategy of foreignization — preserving the cultural specificity of the original and inviting the English reader to encounter it on its own terms.

2.     "Pebbles dancing on stones" – A creative expansion of the original 琅然，清圆 ("sonorous, clear and round"), evoking the stream of Langya Valley while capturing the crisp, flowing notes of the qin.

3.     "Master's fingers" – Refers to Cui Xian (Jade Stream), the qin master who brought the tune to Su Shi.

4.     "Grace of the celestial" – A Daoist-inflected phrase. "Celestial" is preferred over "heaven" to avoid unintended Western religious connotations.

5.     "Dreaming dews" / "sleepless souls" – A deliberate splitting of Su Shi's 月明风露娟娟，人未眠 ("moonlit, wind and dew so fair, men not yet asleep"). The dews dream; the listeners are sleepless. Both are moved by the music.

6.     "Isle of celestials" – Rendering 飞仙 (flying immortal), evoking the Daoist belief that enlightened beings transcend death.

7.     "Strings beyond the flow" – Rendering 徽外三两弦. The qin has frets (徽); playing "beyond the frets" produces ethereal overtones. Here, it also suggests music beyond the stream, spirit beyond death.

Appreciation:

Su Shi wrote this ci as an elegy for his mentor Ouyang Xiu, "The Drinking Lord." Decades earlier, in Langya Valley, Ouyang Xiu had a pavilion built where he drank with friends and wrote his famous prose, The Drinking Lord's Pavilion. Later, the musician Shen Zun visited the valley and composed a qin tune that captured the stream's sound, which he also called "The Drinking Lord." Ouyang Xiu loved it and wrote verses for it, but the words and music never fully aligned. More than thirty years after both men had passed, the qin master Cui Xian (Daoist name: Jade Stream) came to Su Shi with Shen Zun's score, seeking new lyrics. This poem was Su Shi's response.

The poem opens with sound: "Sonorous, like pebbles dancing on stones" — an image both auditory and visual, the pebbles evoking the very stream that inspired the tune. The music softens through the valley, fulfils it. Who plays? "Only our Drinking Lord knows." But he is gone. The paradox is quiet and deep.

The second stanza rises to a climax: "It's a silent symphony on Master's fingers — / grace of the celestial, solace for sleepless souls." The paradox of a "silent symphony" echoes the Daoist ideal of music beyond sound. The line, stripped of initial articles, reads like an inscription — chiselled, lapidary, final.

Then the turn: "Xiu chanted here to the stream's high and low. / Now he's gone, his vibes linger on silent notes." The word "vibes" is deliberately modern — suggesting vibration, lingering resonance. Mountains may turn bare, then green again. Rivers may run backward, though very rare. These lines echo Su Shi's original precisely, conveying the near-impossibility of such a loss, yet also the Daoist acceptance that even mountains erode. Nothing is permanent — except, perhaps, art.

The final stanza resolves: Xiu flew to the isle of celestials, yet we still chant his ci poems. The tune holds his earthly joy "in a proud glow" — not mournful, but celebratory. And the last line invites us to “Listen: it weaves a few strings beyond the flow." The qin's harmonics beyond the frets. The music beyond the stream. The spirit beyond death. And this translation, beyond the original Chinese.

Throughout, this version chooses foreignization over domestication. "The Drinking Lord" is not a familiar English phrase — deliberately so. The reader pauses. That pause is where understanding begins. The original is Chinese. It asks to be met on its own terms. Here, the pebbles dance. The dews dream. The sleepless find solace. And the Drinking Lord, though gone, lingers in every note beyond the flow…

Reference:

1. baike.baidu.com