冯子振，元代散曲名家，1253-1348，字海粟，自号瀛洲洲客、怪怪道人，湖南攸县人。自幼勤奋好学。元大德二年(1298)登进士及第，时年47岁，人谓“大器晚成”。朝廷重其才学，先召为集贤院学士、待制，继任承事郎，连任保宁（今四川境内）、彰德（今河南安阳）节度使。晚年归乡著述。世称其“博洽经史，于书无所不记”，且文思敏捷。下笔不能自休。一生著述颇丰，传世有《居庸赋》、《十八公赋》、《华清古乐府》、《海粟诗集》等书文，以散曲最著。
Feng Zizhen, a famous Sanqu composer of the Yuan Dynasty, 1253-1348, with the courtesy name Haisu, also known as Yingzhou Zhouke and Guaigui Daoren, was born in You County, Hunan Province. I have been diligent and eager to learn since childhood. In the second year of Yuan Dade (1298), he passed the imperial examination and became a successful candidate. At the age of 47, he was known as a “late bloomer”. The court valued his talents and education, and first summoned him as a bachelor of the Jixian Academy and a waiting official. He succeeded as the Chengshi Lang and was re elected as the military governor of Baoning (now within Sichuan Province) and Zhangde (now Anyang, Henan Province). In his later years, he returned to his hometown to write. He is known for his extensive knowledge of classics and history, as well as his ability to remember everything in books, and his quick thinking and literary skills. Writing cannot be done on one’s own. Throughout his life, he wrote extensively, including works such as “Juyong Fu”, “Eighteen Gong Fu”, “Huaqing Ancient Yuefu”, “Haisu Poetry Collection”, among others, with the most famous being “Sanqu”.
The Parrot Song: Autumn Thoughts in the South of the City “is one of the representative works of the Yuan Dynasty writer Feng Zizhen. By depicting the autumn scenery of the south of the city, it expresses the author’s inner sorrow and parting.
冯子振·《鹦鹉曲·城南秋思》
新凉时节城南住，
灯火诵鲁国尼父。
到秋来宋玉生悲，
不赋高唐云雨。
[么]一声声只在芭蕉，
断送别离人去。
甚河桥柳树全疏，
恨正在长亭短处。
Autumn Thoughts at the South of the City
to the tune of Parrot
Feng Zizhen
I live in the south of the city when it is cool,
And often read Confucius under a lamplight.
Autumn comes, I would feel sad as would Song Yu1 do,
No longer compose poetry for love and delight.
Drop by drop, the autumn rain beats the banana leave,
As if sending off him who takes leave.
Willow branches2 by the river bridge are all broken,
Watching wayside pavilions I feel my griefs woken.
1. Song Yu, a scholar and writer in Warring period, whose work entitled “Nine Defenses” begins with an elegy to the sad autumn.
2. A willow branch was often used by the ancient Chines as a toke n of sending off one’s dear ones or best friend.
（辜正坤 译）
