吴中田妇叹 A Peasant Woman’s Complaint at Huzhou

吴中田妇叹 (和贾收韵)

原作: 苏轼（字子瞻, 号东坡居士; 11世纪北宋）

新版英译及赏析: 闵晓红(2023)

今年粳稻熟苦迟，庶见霜风来几时。

霜风来时雨如泻，杷头出菌镰生衣。

眼枯泪尽雨不尽，忍见黄穗卧青泥！

茅苫一月垅上宿，天晴获稻随车归。

汗流肩赪载入市，价贱乞与如糠粞。

卖牛纳税拆屋炊，虑浅不及明年饥。

官今要钱不要米，西北万里招羌儿。

龚黄满朝人更苦，不如却作河伯妇。

A Peasant Woman’s Complaint at Huzhou

— in echo to the rhymes of Jia Shou’s poem

written by: Su Shi (11th AC, social name 'Dongpo')

En. trans.+ annot. by Julia Min ( Feb. 2023)

This sinica rice grows mighty slow this year. 

The frosty wind comes before grain matures.

Then comes the rain, a long and lashing one.

My sickle’s rusted, my rake mossed and worn.

To see a harvest sunk in mud, I cannot bear.

For a month, I stay on-site to drain the water.

The rain soaks the field, but can’t wash my tears.

As it clears, I reap what’s left in pain and sweat,

And load my cart and carry it to the market.

Then I find the price as low as chaff there.

“To pay the Huns far away in the northwest.”

They take cash for tax, not grain, this year,

I have to sell my ox and wreck my house here,

to settle the tax and get wood for the winter.

Nothing’s left, what shall I do for next year?

They say the Court’s full of worthy courtiers

Like Gong and Huang — yet my lot is no better

like the sacrificed wife to Lord Yellow River.

Notes:

1.     ‘To echo the rhymes’: (‘heshi’ or ‘heyun’), a poem composed in the same rhyming pattern as another poem to show appreciation; I have not been able to find anything like this in the English-speaking world, so I call it ‘an echo poem’, or, here in full, ‘to echo the rhymes of’ or ‘in echo to the rhymes of’.

2.     The Huns: a nationality in the north-west of the Song territory. There had been disorders and invasions along the north-west borders, and Wang Anshi, the leader of the New Law, pursued a policy of pacifying the Huns by offering money and silk. This unintelligent, weak attitude enraged many patriotic people of the time.

3.     Lord Gong and Lord Huang: Lord Gong Sui and Lord Huang Bai, two highly respected officials from the Han Dynasty;

4.     Yellow River: here refers to the God of the Yellow River, to whom a sacrifice was made in times of flood in ancient China. It was believed that a beautiful girl, drowned as the sacrificed wife, could please the river god and stop the flood. Similar practices also occurred in other countries in ancient times.

Appreciation:

This poem was written in 1072 in Huzhou, about 80 kilometres from Hangzhou, an advanced agricultural region. It’s an overtly political satire, using a peasant’s voice to convey experience, like Jonathan Swift’s Modest Proposal.

The subject matter focuses on the common people – the miseries of farmers saddled with armaments and high taxes, yet receiving no relief from an indifferent government, even in times of natural disaster. The New Law proved to be a hasty effort, resulting in severe consequences in many parts of the country. For a change, the peasants were required to pay their taxes in cash rather than in commodities. Such themes were quite popular at the time. Every Song courtier from the Royal Court, as well as every official dispatched to districts, had a taste for poetry, as it was part of the Imperial Exam, a gateway to becoming a civil servant. You could imagine the impact of a collective output of poems by high officials in the gentlemen’s society, on top of the many reports to the Emperor.

It’s interesting to know this poem was composed in the same rhyme as Su Shi’s friend Jia Shou’s poem. Soon after, Su Shi’s brother Su Zhe echoed it with a new poem in the same rhyming pattern. It was an intellectual game very popular back then.

Reference:

1. Blooming Alone in Winter by Gordon Osing, Julia Min and Huang Haipeng，published by the People's Publication House Henan Province in 1990 (《寒心未肯随春态》戈登.奥赛茵，闵晓红，黄海鹏) ("My field of japonica rice won’t make it this year;/ Any night now come the killing frost and wind,/ And with the wind will surely come great rains./ The rakes will rot and cobwebs grow in our sickles/ I’m exhausted with drying my eyes and endless rains.// I can’t bear the sight of the harvest dead in the mud./I lived in my fields for a month digging ditches for drains./ As soon as it quit I came back with my cart loaded down./I sweated the pain in my shoulders and got it to town./ But the price was so low at the market it could have been chaff./ The cattle paid taxes and I burned the rafters for lunch.// So much for this year and forget food for the winter./ It’s cash not rice the boys in the capital need./ How else will they pay for the army they need in the north!/Judge Gong and Judge Huang can’t hear all the bitterest sad cases./ My life’s good as being the river God’s sacrificed wife.")

2. pictures from Google；