中村世孝

詞書

賀八木氏四十二初度

本文

想像齢筵六七春。
芝蘭玉樹幾多賔（賓）。
滿堂佳氣揚杯處。
一唱九如聲様新。

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源世孝

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英訳

Imagining your birthday party, six times seven springs.
Fragrant plants, jade-like trees -- many, many guests!
An elegant atmosphere in the hall as people raise their cups,
All intoning the Nine Similitudes, the sound so fresh and new.

Line two: "Fragrant plants," literally, "iris and orchid" (芝蘭), is a metaphor for excellence, beauty, and honor, and by extension, persons embodying these qualities. "Jade-like tree" denotes a handsome or talented young man.

Line four: "The Nine Similitudes," kyūjo 九如, is an allusion to Ode 166 in Shih ching (T'ien Pao, "Heaven Protects"), which offers a felicitous wish for longevity, with a string of nine similes, in stanzas three and six, all involving the character 如: "Heaven protects and establishes thee,/ So that in every thing thou dost prosper,/ Like the high hills, and the mountain masses,/ Like the topmost ridges, and the greatest bulks;/ That as the stream ever coming on,/ Such is thine increase.... Like the moon advancing to the full,/ Like the sun ascending the heavens,/ Like the age of the southern hills,/ Never waning, never falling,/ Like the luxuriance of the fir and the cypress;-- May such be thy succeeding line!" See James Legge, trans., The She King, pp.256 - 58.

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