65. The Drunk Song on Stone Fish Lake, Along with a Preface

A poem by Yuan Jie, translated by Hyun Woo Kim, and an announcement

Stone Fish Lake

Is like Dongting.

The summer water has begun to fill up—Mount Jun is blue.

The mount becomes a barrel;

The water becomes a pond.

The drinking crowd, seated, are islands, apparently.

The long winds that create big waves, day after day,

Cannot stop people from sailing the boat for drinking!

I bring a long ladle and sit on Baqiu,

Pouring the drink for the guests all around, thus scattering the worries.

「石魚湖上醉歌幷序」

石魚湖

似洞庭

夏水欲滿君山青

山為樽

水為沼

酒徒歷歷坐洲島

長風連日作大浪

不能廢人運酒舫

我持長瓢坐巴丘

酌飲四座以散愁

From Hyun Woo:

What a jolly little poem we have today! Last week’s poem by Du Fu was good, but sad. This week, we are clearing the air with a poem by Yuan Jie. To fully enjoy it, we need some background knowledge. Reading other poems Yuan Jie wrote and the preface to this week’s poem, which I did not translate, we get to know some amusing details from his personal life. The lake Yuan Jie frequented had a rock in the middle of it resembling a fish, which made the poet name it Stone Fish Lake. There was a dented spot on the rock, or the stone fish as Yuan Jie called it. Yuan Jie loved to row a boat to the stone fish with his friends and would drink together on the lake, using the dent as a bowl for the drink.

The lake did not even have a name before the poet named it Stone Fish Lake—not a really remarkable lake, apparently. In contrast, “Dongting” is the most famous lake in China, and hundreds of poets have written about it. However, for Yuan Jie, his beloved Stone Fish Lake is just “like Dongting”. In the preface, he wrote that drinking near the stone fish feels “like leaning on Baqiu, and pouring from the top of Mount Jun.” “Jun” and “Baqiu” are both well-known mountains around Dongting Lake. Yuan Jie changes scales without breaking a sweat, likening a rock to a mountain (the “Mount Jun” in the poem refers to the stone fish) and stating that the “water becomes a pond”. Small things get big, and big things get small—even people, who are seated in boats around the rock, become “islands”.

My favorite lines from today’s poems are: “The long winds that create big waves, day after day,/Cannot stop people from sailing the boat for drinking!” Yes, no wind will stop Yuan Jie and his friends from drinking by the stone fish. Now that it is June and we are entering summer, I also want to hop into a boat and drink on a lake.

Announcement:

Just like what I’ve written right above, it’s June! What does that mean? It means: it’s time I ask you to become a paid subscriber. All paid subscribers to Three Hundred Tang Poems receive a Classical Chinese poetry postcard, and the next postcard is set to be sent out in July. If you’ve been considering financially supporting my project, now might be the best time. Although I enjoy working on this newsletter very much, it takes time and effort to send a Tang poem to you every week. So, if you can help me out a bit, that will be great. Thanks in advance!

If you enjoyed my work, you can buy me a cup of tea. I am not a coffee person, by the way.