Bring In the Wine for the greyhairs

Chen Tao's muddled attempt to add to the genre

Bring In the Wine
Chen Tao

The golden cup is not reserved for when spring is young and brash!
Our short and shadowy lives go by in a lightning flash.
As glamorous girls are swooning with your lute songs in their ears,
The yellow mulch is dripping from the arrow of the years.
Yes, Magu’s eyes will dim, the feathers fall from her bird-like nails,
The horn on Taiyi’s unicorn will grow fish scales.
Age may rot away some half the Mountain Turtle’s bones,
In time the sable dragon regrets it threatened farmers’ homes.
Diviners of the bone and yarrow—Confucius, Zhou—all pass,
And none can tell who’s fool or sage from bones in wormwood grass.
The poets of Prince Liang’s park are gone; we can’t restore those days.
On the rocks at Orchid Pavilion, only moonlit water plays.
When Chang’e’s xiao pipes keen, the sweet rains run dry,
She plays her harp on river banks, and the fish and dragons cry.
All lotus stems must lean like drunks, all reishi mushrooms fold,
When autumn winds begin to moan, our vaulted halls grow cold.
So raise great horns and drink long life to our lord and king,
The sacrifices at Mount Jade will start a crimson spring,
Light silver duck and golden goose censers without delay,
Great reaches once belonged to Sui; all part of Tang today.
Above the coral throne let rise a cloud of fragrant mist,
From phoenix fowl, dragon steaks, and precious monkey lips.
Today, the iris and orchid—flowers of friendship—shall not droop,
All you guests are men of legend, adding virtue to our stone soup.
May Wenkang lend us wit and laughter, unicorns on hand,
Let dragons circle in our music: long life in this land!

陈陶  将进酒 
金尊莫倚青春健，龌龊浮生如走电。
琴瑟盘倾从世珠，黄泥局泻流年箭。
麻姑爪秃瞳子昏，东皇肉角生鱼鳞。
灵鳌柱骨半枯朽，骊龙德悔愁耕人。
周孔蓍龟久沦没，黄蒿谁认贤愚骨。
兔苑词才去不还，兰亭水石空明月。
姮娥弄箫香雨收，江滨迸瑟鱼龙愁。
灵芝九折楚莲醉，翾风一叹梁庭秋。
醁亚蛮觥奉君寿，玉山三献春红透。
银鸭金鹅言待谁，隋家岳渎皇家有。
珊瑚座上凌香云，凤炰龙炙猩猩唇。
芝兰此日不倾倒，南山白石皆贤人。
文康调笑麒麟起，一曲飞龙寿天地。

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Chen Tao (824-882) was a late Tang poet who tried to place his own stamp on the Bring In the Wine tradition, without much success. I decided to translate it for completion’s sake: it is the last of four pieces in the Complete Tang Poems with the title Bring In the Wine.

First, a translator’s note: I haven’t been able to find even a translation of this poem into modern Chinese, so I’m translating from scratch. I’m by no means a good enough scholar of Middle Chinese to do this, and there is a strong chance that I’ve misunderstood some of these lines. If any of my readers have any insight or useful references, please do share!

Chen opens with the interesting idea that the traditional carpe diem emphasis on youth is all wrong: old folks should be seizing the day as well. But I don’t think he develops this theme at all. He spends a few lines telling us that even gods and goddesses get old, but then reverts back to more standard laments that the dead aren’t coming back, so we should banquet now while we can. The theme of old age partying seems to have been lost by the second half of the poem, though it is echoed in his repeated toasts to long life.

In style, this poem is rather old fashioned, as well. Chinese poetry before the Tang often consisted of a shopping list of historical and mythological references that the reader had to piece together for themselves. The great Tang poems that we read today were in large part a reaction to and rejection of that style (sometimes called the “court style”). Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Wei and others chose to move away from court poetry in some of their work and develop a more immediate and personal style. Chen Tao is writing very much in the older tradition, where poetry is a chance to show off one’s erudition as well as a personal expression. That’s why almost every line of this poem contains some historical or mythological allusion.

Notes:

Magu: A goddess known for having bird-like claws.

Unicorn: The qilin, a Chinese chimaera with a single horn on his snout.

Taiyi: An obscure legendary emperor mentioned/invented in the Songs of Chu.

Mountain Turtle, sable dragon: Mythic beasts, but I haven’t been able to pinpoint exactly which stories about them are being referenced here, if any.

Confucius, Zhou: Zhou was the Duke of Zhou, the figure Confucius claimed was the inspiration for his philosophy. Chen casts both of them as shamans or diviners here.

Prince Liang’s park: Prince Liang was a patron of the arts during the Han Dynasty.

Orchid Pavilion: A real place at which Wang Xizhi organised a famous meeting of poets in the 4th century.

Chang’e: Goddess of the moon. Immortal but banished to the moon and yearning for her life back on earth, so a fitting reference for a carpe diem poem.

Reishi mushrooms: Known in Chinese as lingzhi, claimed to have medicinal properties, with a crinkly form when mature.

Sacrifices at Mount Jade: No specific reference that I could find; a traditional series of sacrifices carried out in an important location.

Silver duck and golden goose: Incense burners gilded with precious metals.

Sui: The dynasty that preceded the Tang.

Coral throne, phoenix, dragon, monkey lips: General bywords for opulence.

Stone soup: Daoist immortals were said to be able to live on white stones alone. This metaphor seems to clash with the sumptuous descriptions of food above.

Wenkang: A legendary figure known for his gift of the gab.