The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, Matching a Poem by Zhang Wenqian (II)
II
Don’t you know— Those stirring tales of Tianbao era rise and fall— today the Restoration Tablet is covered with weeds! It says nothing of treacherous ministers who betrayed the empire, and speaks only of elder statesmen and their meritorious deeds. Who was it allowed the imperial concubine to ascend into Heaven? The ladies of Guo, Qin, and Han were surely divine! A nomadic drum of mulberry wood, hanging chimes of jade, the spring wind did not dare to stir up dust or dirt. Who even knew the names of An and Shi? Valiant warriors and fierce generals died peacefully in their sleep. Baoweng Peak is barely five feet short of Heaven, on its summit they planned to carve the words “Kaiyuan.” How pitiful, the way power vanished as times changed, the traitor’s wickedness was as precipitous as a steep cliff. The former ruler managed to return ten thousand miles from Western Shu, but once the southern enclosure was locked, it was never reopened. What a shame! Filial love as expansive as Heaven itself eventually caused a general to inquire timidly, “Is everyone well?” How disgraceful! That slave could not mention Fuguo’s scheming with Empress Zhang, but still recalled shepherd’s-purse sold by the catty in Chang’an.
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1.3 浯溪中興頌詩和張文潛(二首) The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, II
Date: 2021-12-01 06:18 pm (UTC)君不見
驚人廢興傳天寶
中興碑上今生草。
不知負國有姦雄
但說成功尊國老。
誰令妃子天上來
虢秦韓國皆天才。
花桑羯鼓玉方響
春風不敢生塵埃。
姓名誰復知安史
健兒猛將安眠死。
去天尺五抱甕峯
峯頭鑿出開元字。
時移勢去真可哀
姦人心醜深如崖。
西蜀萬里尚能反
南內一閉何時開。
可憐孝德如天大
反使將軍稱好在。
嗚呼，奴婢乃不能道輔國用事張后尊
乃能念春薺長安作斤賣。
The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, Matching a Poem by Zhang Wenqian (II)
II
Don’t you know—
Those stirring tales of Tianbao era rise and fall—
today the Restoration Tablet is covered with weeds!
It says nothing of treacherous ministers who betrayed the empire,
and speaks only of elder statesmen and their meritorious deeds.
Who was it allowed the imperial concubine to ascend into Heaven?
The ladies of Guo, Qin, and Han were surely divine!
A nomadic drum of mulberry wood, hanging chimes of jade,
the spring wind did not dare to stir up dust or dirt.
Who even knew the names of An and Shi?
Valiant warriors and fierce generals died peacefully in their sleep.
Baoweng Peak is barely five feet short of Heaven,
on its summit they planned to carve the words “Kaiyuan.”
How pitiful, the way power vanished as times changed,
the traitor’s wickedness was as precipitous as a steep cliff.
The former ruler managed to return ten thousand miles from Western Shu,
but once the southern enclosure was locked, it was never reopened.
What a shame! Filial love as expansive as Heaven itself
eventually caused a general to inquire timidly, “Is everyone well?”
How disgraceful! That slave could not mention Fuguo’s scheming with Empress Zhang,
but still recalled shepherd’s-purse sold by the catty in Chang’an.