On Hearing the Chant of Intercession at the Temple of Heaven’s Stillness at Ch’angchou by Hsü Chih-mo ~ 徐志摩 《常州天宁寺闻礼忏声》 with English Translations

作品原文

徐志摩 《常州天宁寺闻礼忏声》

有如在火一般可爱的阳光里,偃卧在长梗的,杂乱的从草里,听初夏第一声的鹧鸪,从天边直响入云中,从云中又回响到天边;

有如在月夜的沙漠里,月光温柔的手指,轻轻的抚摩著一颗颗热伤了的砂砾,在鹅绒般软滑的热带的空气里,听一个骆驼的铃声,轻灵的,轻灵的,在远处响著,近了,近了,又远了……

有如在一个荒凉的山谷里,大胆的黄昏星,独自临照著阳光死去了的宇宙,野草与野树默默的祈祷著,听一个瞎子,手扶著一个幼童,铛的一响算命锣,在这黑沈沈的世界里回响著;

有如在大海里的一块礁石上,浪涛像猛虎般的狂扑著,天空紧紧的绷著黑云的厚幕,听大海向那威吓著的风暴,低声的,柔声的,忏悔它一切的罪恶;

有如在喜马拉雅的顶巅,听天外的风,追赶著天外的云的急步声,在无数雪亮的山壑间回响著;

有如在生命的舞台的幕背,听空虚的笑声,失望与痛苦的呼吁声,残杀与淫暴的狂欢声,厌世与自杀的高歌声,在生命的舞台上合奏著;

我听著了天宁寺的礼忏声!

这是哪里来的神明?人间再没有这样的境界!这鼓一声,钟一声,磬一声,木鱼一声,佛号一声……乐音在大殿里,迂缓的,曼长的回荡著,无数冲突的波流谐合了,无数相反的色彩净化了,无数现世的高低消灭了……

这一声佛号,一声钟,一声鼓,一声木鱼,一声磬,谐音盘薄在宇宙间——解开一小颗时间的埃尘,收束了无量数世纪的因果;

这是哪里来的大和谐——星海里的光彩,大千世界的音籁,真生命的洪流:止息了一切的动,一切的扰攘;在天地的尽头,在金漆的殿椽间,在佛像的眉宇间,在我的衣袖里,在耳鬓边,在官感里,在心灵里,在梦里……

在梦里,这一瞥间的显示,青天,白水,绿草,慈母温软的胸怀,是故乡吗?是故乡吗?光明的翅羽,在无极中飞舞!大圆觉底里流出的欢喜,在伟大的,庄严的,寂灭的,无疆的,

和谐的静定中实现了!

颂美呀,涅盘!赞美呀!涅盘!

英文译文

 

On Hearing the Chant of Intercession at the Temple of Heaven’s Stillness at Ch’angchou

Hsü Chih-mo

Like hearing, couched on one’s back amid long-stemmed rioting grasses in the sunlight welcome as fire’s warmth, the first summer call of the partridge which sounds from sky’s edge up to the clouds and echoes from clouds back to the edge of sky;

like hearing, through the tropic air eiderdown-soft of a desert night when the moonlight’s tender fingertips stroke lightly one by one the scorched fragments of rock, hauntingly, hauntingly borne from afar the sound of a camel bell which nears, nears, and again moves away…;

like hearing, in a sequestered valley of the hills where the bold stars of dusk alone illumine a world bereft of sunlight and the grasses and the trees are bowed in silent prayer, an old fortuneteller, blind man led by a young boy, the clanging of whose gong reverberates through this realm of lowering dark;

like hearing, on some ocean rock savagely struck by breakers tiger-fierce while a black cloudwrack bandages tight the sky, the sea in low and gentle tones confessing its every crime before the storm’s menace;

like hearing, among Himalayan peaks, echoing through innumerable ravines of shining snow the rush of clouds from beyond the sky driven by winds from beyond the sky;

like hearing, from behind the scenes in the theater of life, the onstage symphony which blends laughter of vanity with screams of pain and despair, wild yell of rapine and massacre with shrill song of death wish and suicide;

I have heard the chant of intercession in the Temple of Heaven’s Stillness!

Whence comes this godhead? Earth has no second realm such as this!

Sound of drum, sound of bell, sound of stone chime, sound of wood block, sound of the Buddha’s name…as this music rolls and flows in stately measure through the great hall, stilled are the eddies of numberless conflicts, toned are the clashes of numberless bright tints, dissolved are the numberless hierarchies of men….

This sound of Buddha’s name, this sound of bell, sound of drum, sound of wood block, sound of stone chime (swelling in harmony filling the universe, loosing a speck of the dust of time) brings to fulfillment an endless number ofkarma centuries long;

whence comes this great harmony?—cessation of all movement, cessation of all disturbance in the radiant sea of the stars, in the pipe-song of the Thousand Earths, in the flood of Destiny;

to the limits of Heaven and Earth, in among the hall’s lacquered pillars, on the brow of the Buddha image, in the wide sleeves of my robe, in my ears and at my temples, in the pit of my stomach, in my heart, in my dream….

In my dream, this moment’s revelation, blue sky, white water, warm soft maternal bosom of green grass, is this my birthplace, this the land of my belonging?

Shining of wings in infinity soaring!

Flow of joy from the source of Enlightenment, manifest now in this great, solemn calm, this calm of Release, harmonious, limitless calm!

O hymn Nirvana! Extol Nirvana!

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