蒙书选译:
1.黎明即起,洒扫庭除,要内外整洁;
既昏便息,关锁门户,必亲自检点。
Get up at dawn, sweep the courtyard and steps, and keep inside and outside your house tidy and clean; after dusk you should prepare to sleep, before going to bed, you should lock all doors and windows, and you should check everything yourself. 2.一粥一饭,当思来处不易;
半丝半缕,恒念物力维艰。
When you eat everything, you should consider that it doesn’t come easily; when you dress yourself, you should remember that everything you wear is difficult to produce. 3.能有几句,见人胡讲,洪钟无声,满瓶不响。
You can’t say things carelessly and wantonly when you talk with people. A big bell doesn’t toll without being struck, and a bottle makes no sound when it is full. 4. 与人讲话,看人面色,意不相投,不须强说。
When you talk to others, it is wise for you to carefully weigh up their words and closely watch their expressions. If the talk is disagreeable, you should stop the talk at once. 5. 学问勤中得,萤窗万卷书。三冬今足用,谁笑腹空虚?
Diligence is the sole source of learning, Hardworking comes before being well-read. Three years’ study gives you enough knowledge, No one will laugh at your being stupid. 6. 冬则温,夏则清。晨则首,昏则定。
You should make your parents enjoy warm in winter, You should let them live in cool in summer.
In the morning you should pay your respects to them, In the evening you should arrange them to slumber. 7. 玉不琢,不成器。人不学,不知义。
If jade is not carved and polished, It cannot become a thing of use. If a man does not learn,
He cannot know what is proper in the world.
8. 屈指人生大事,承欢养志为先。生身父母比青天,敢向青天骄慢。逆子雷霆一击,佳儿富贵双全。痴人拜佛走天边,佛在堂前不见。
To count on one’s fingers major issues in life, Serving parents’ a matter of prime importance.
One’s own parents can be compared to the blue sky of grace, To which nobody dares to show his arrogance.
Unfilial sons’ll die of a thunder from the sky
While filial ones will be of high ranking and riches. Idiots go to worship Buddha in a far-away place.
Know not that their parents are Buddha in their house.
9. 寒来暑往,秋收冬藏。闰余成岁,律吕调阳。云腾致雨,露结为霜。
Cold and heat come and go,
Fall harvest and storing for winter people know.
Intercalary days and months are fixed to make a year, The calendar is so regulated as music by a tuner.
When clouds rise and meet cold, there will soon be a rain. When dew drops congeal, they become frost in the main. 10. 但行好事,莫问前程。
What you should do only is good deeds, paying no attention to the future. 11. 易涨易退山溪水,易反易复小人心。
Mountain stream water rises and ebbs easily, a base person’s mind is always chopping and changing.
12. 子贡曰: “贫而无谄,富而无骄,何如?” 子曰:“可也。未若贫而乐,富而好礼者也。” 子贡曰 :“《诗》云:‘如切如磋,如琢如磨’,其斯之谓与?”子曰:“赐也,始可与言《诗》已矣,告诸往而知来者。”
Tzu-kung said, “ ‘Poor without being obsequious, wealthy without being arrogant.’ What do you think of this saying?”
The master said, “That will do, but better still ‘Poor yet delighting in the Way, wealthy yet observant of the rites.’”
Tzu-kung said, “The Odes say,
Like bone cut, like horn polished, Like jade carved, like stone ground.
Is not what you have said a case in point?”
The master said, “Ssu, only with a man like you can one discuss the Odes.
Tell such a man something and he can see its relevance to what he has not been told.” ? 13. 陶渊明《桃花源记》
晋太远中,武陵人捕鱼为业。缘溪行,忘路之远近。忽逢桃花林。夹岸数百步,中无杂树,芳草鲜美,落英缤纷。渔人甚异之。复前行,欲穷其林。林尽水源,便得一山。山有小口,仿佛若有光;便舍船,从口入。初极狭,才通人。复行数十步,豁然开朗。土地平旷,屋舍俨然,有良田美池桑竹之属。阡陌交通,鸡犬相闻。其中往来种作,男女衣着,悉如外人;黄发垂髫,并怡然自乐。见渔人,乃大惊,问所从来,具答之。便要还家,为设酒杀鸡作食。村中闻有此人,咸来闻讯。自云先世避秦时乱,率妻子邑人来此绝境,不复出焉。遂与外人间隔。问今是何世,乃不知有汉,无论魏晋。此人一一为具言所闻,皆叹惋。余人各延至其家,皆出酒食。停数日,辞去。此中人语云:“不足为外人道也。”既出,得其船,便扶向路,处处志之。及郡下,诣太守说如此。太守即遣人随其往。寻向所志,遂迷不复得路。 杨宪益译:
In the reign of Taiyuan of the Jin Dynasty, there was a man of Wuling who was a fisherman by trade. One day he was fishing up a stream in his boat, headless of how far he had gone, when suddenly he came upon a forest of peach trees.
On either bank for several hundred yards there were no other kinds of trees. The fragrant grass was beautiful to look at, all patterned with fallen blossoms.
The fisherman was extremely surprised and went on further, determined to get to the end of this wood. He found at the end of the wood the source of the stream and the foot of a cliff, where there was a small cave in which there seemed to be a faint light. He left his boat and went in through the mouth of the cave.
At first it was very narrow, only wide enough for a man, but after forty or fifty yards he suddenly found himself in the open. The place he had come to was level and spacious. There were houses and cottages arranged in a planned order; there were fine fields and beautiful pools; there were mulberry trees, bamboo groves, and many other kinds of trees as well.
There were raised pathways round the fields; and he heard the fowls crowing and dogs barking. Going to and for in all this, and busied in working and plating, were people, both men and women,. Their dress was not unlike that of people outside, and all of them, whether old people with white hair or children with their hair tied in a knot, were happy and content with themselves.
Seeing the fisherman, they were greatly amazed and asked him where he had come from. He answered all their questions, and then they invited him to their homes, where they put wine before him, killed chickens and prepared food in his honor. When the other people in the village heard about the visitor, they too all came to ask questions.
They themselves told him that their ancestors had escaped from the wars and confusion in the time of the Qin Dynasty. Bringing their wives and children, all the people of their area had reached this isolated place, and had stayed here ever since. Thus they had lost all contacts with outside world.
They asked what dynasty it was now. the Han they had never heard of, let alone the Wei and the Jin. Point by point the fisherman explained all he could of the world that he knew, and they all sighed in deep sorrow.
Afterwards all the rest invited him to their homes, and all feasted him with wine and food. He stayed there several days and then bade them goodbye; before he departed these people said to him, “Never speak to anyone outside about this!” So he went out, found his boat and went back by the same route as he had come, all along the way leaving marks.
When he got to the provincial town he called on the prefect and told him all about his experience. The prefect at once sent men to go with him and follow up the marks he had left. But they became completely confused over the marks and never found the place.
Liu Ziji, a scholar of high reputation from Nanyang, heard of this and enthusiastically offered to go out with the fisherman to try again. But he fell ill and died before realizing his plan. After that no one went any more to look for the way. Rich Davis, Davis Steelman译:
During the Taiyuan era of the Jin Dynasty there was a man of Wuling who made his living as a fisherman. Once while following a steam he forgot how far he had gone, he suddenly came to grove of blossoming peach trees.
It lined both banks for several hundred paces and included not a single other kind of tree. Petals of the dazzling and fragrant blossoms were falling everywhere in profusion.
Thinking this place highly unusual, the fisherman advanced once again in wanting to see how far it went. The peach trees stopped at the stream’s source, where the fisherman came to a mountain with a small opening through which it seemed he could see light. Leaving his boat, he entered the opening.
At first it was so narrow that he could barely pass, but after advancing a short distance it sudden opened up to reveal a broad, flat area with imposing houses, good fields, beautiful ponds, mulberry trees, bamboo, and the like.
The fisherman saw paths extending among the fields in all directions, and could hear the