定风波.莫听穿林打叶声 Barely I hear the rain

定风波.莫听穿林打叶声

( 三月七日，沙湖道中遇雨。雨具先去，同行皆狼狈，余独不觉。已而遂晴，故作此词。)

原作：苏轼（ 11th Century）

英译：闵晓红

莫听穿林打叶声，

何妨吟啸且徐行。

竹杖芒鞋轻胜马，

谁怕？

一蓑烟雨任平生。

料峭春风吹酒醒，

微冷，

山头斜照却相迎。

回首向来萧瑟处，

归去，

也无风雨也无晴

Barely, I hear the rain

-       to the tune “ Pacify the Turmoil”

(On 7 March, we encountered stormy weather on our way to Sand Lake. Unfortunately, our rain gear was taken before us, so we were all soaking wet. Everyone else felt out of place except me. The sky cleared a moment later when I wrote this ci poem.)

Written by: Su Shi ( 11^th AC)

English version: Julia Min (2022)

Barely, I hear the rain

Slip through the woods, beating the leaves.

Why should any of these

ruin my chanting, my walk at ease?

A bamboo staff, and straw shoes --

Just as good as riding a steed.

Who cares!

One straw raincape is all you need

for a lifetime’s beating rain and dark mist.

A crisp wind wakes me

to a spring chill from a cosy wine dream.

Yet there, on a crest ahead,

slanting beams of a sunset rise to greet me!

Looking back at the road taken,

where the rain rattled the trees,

I see no difference:

Just a tempest stirring in a cup of tea --

No fair or foul, no wind or rain.

Appreciation:

This ci, too, dates from March 1082. It was the third year of his exile in the remote town of Huangzhou, following three months in prison after being framed in a setup by his political opponent, Shen Kuo. Dongpo and his friends were on their way to Sand Lake when a storm suddenly swept across the terrain. Everyone else felt out of place, soaked to the skin, but our poet saw this as his banishment to this town, too, shall pass.

The ci tune is well chosen to express his strong courage, gained through a deeper philosophical understanding of his reality. ‘Steed’ here implies his previous success in the Royal Court, while the bamboo stick, the straw shoes and the straw raincape are associated with the ordinary life of common people — one he now accepts with composure and ease.

The English translation is restructured to capture the more dynamic, free and brave spirit conveyed in the lines of this revised version. “The road taken” is used here to associate with Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” (1915). “Tempest in a cup of tea” comes from the English proverb: a storm/tempest in a teacup, underscoring the poem’s central insight: that hardship is often magnified by perception, while inner freedom lies beyond such distinctions.

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)（"Barely, I hear the rains invading the woods, lashing the leaves…/I can’t have it bothering my reciting of poems, walking in ease./Straw shoes and a bamboo stick are lighter than horseback,/ Why fear one straw raincape in the smoke of a lifetime’s rains? //A crisp Spring wind clears out the wine, but leaves me chilled. /Then, on a crest, angling rays of a sunset greeting me!/Looking back at my path, where the rainstorm rattled the trees,/I fear no changes, no storm in the forest, nor clarities."）

2. Picture from jianshu.com（ 简书 ）

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