Thanks to His Excellency the Director of Memorials (知奏事) for Summoning Me and Bidding Me Compose on the Thousand-Petal Pomegranate Flowers謝知奏事相公見喚。命賦千葉榴花。
美景良辰。多致桂林之仙伯。重樓傑閣。兼容氷谷之寒孫。怳若夢中。喜生望表。恭惟某官虹盤烈膽。玉立神姿。曾傾東海。自然爲激濁之波。雖禿南山。何足作書功之竹。小和嶠專車之貴。闢崔琳列戟之門。桃李成蹊。芙蓉泛水。論兵帳下。無非黑槊將軍。弄翰堂中。盡是靑錢學士。屬熏風之戒。夏岸踈幘以納凉。于時濃綠成陰。紛紅如掃。有千葉榴花之𧰟。鬪九光珠箔之明。點緗的於丹鬚。映紅襟於綠蔕。吳王殿上。西施飮卯酒三杯。漢帝宮中。韓壽挾名香一顆。物不虛出。時然後生。尙卑潘氏之千房。安數臨沅之六實。穠華可惜。愛翫未窮。而謂曰。携雲鬢玉顔以同看。難償秀色。待錦章繡句之能狀。粗稱芳心。遽馳折簡之書。旋集能詩之士。如某者。無大白吟芍藥之麗藻。謝廣平賦梅花之婉詞。顧有何才。亦參玆選。始揚眉而迴眄。卽給扎以命文。有人先談。雖幸容蟠木之朽。遣吏輒報。終未道落霞之飛。過蒙華衮之褒。免被醬瓿之覆。笙歌競沸。羅綺交熏。特張折俎之筵。俾潤生塵之筆。飮若九仙之館乍酌瓊漿。榮踰百越之人。暫加章甫。始識爲儒之貴。更鞭䅲古之心。妻孥改觀。朋友相賀。揚身路近。望三千里之鵬飛。祝壽情深。期六萬年之鼇代云云。
In fair scenery and at a good season you summoned many immortal elders of Gyerim (桂林), and in the high tiered pavilion you received even a cold descendant of the icy valley; it was dim as if within a dream, and joy came from beyond what I had hoped. I humbly consider that you, holder of such-and-such office, are a fierce gall in which rainbows are coiled, and a numinous form standing like jade. Though one tipped out the Eastern Sea, it would of itself become a wave that washes away the turbid; and though one stripped the southern mountain bare, how could its bamboo suffice to record your merits? You make little of the eminence of He Qiao (和嶠), who had a carriage to himself, and you have opened the gate where Cui Lin (崔琳) ranged his halberds. Peaches and plums line the road, and lotuses float on the water. Of those who discuss the art of war beneath your tent there is none who is not a general of the black spear, and those who ply the brush in the middle of your hall are all academicians of the Green Coin (靑錢). Meeting the season of warm winds, when on the summer hill you loosen your headcloth and let the coolness in, deep green makes shade and the tumbled red seems swept away — yet the beauty of the thousand-petal pomegranate flower is there, vying with the brightness of a nine-colored beaded blind. It dots its red stamens with pale yellow, and from its green calyx shows a crimson collar. It is as if, in the hall of the king of Wu, Xi Shi had drunk three cups of morning wine; as if, in the palace of the Han emperor, Han Shou (韓壽) had carried a lump of famous incense under his arm. Things do not come forth in vain; they appear only after their time has come. It still makes little of the thousand chambers of the Pan family (潘氏) — how then should one count the six fruits of Linyuan (臨沅)? Grudging that its ripened loveliness should pass, your love and delight in it not yet spent, you said: even to bring cloud-like tresses and jade-like faces to look on it together would hardly repay its surpassing radiance; only by waiting for silken writing and embroidered lines that can depict it does one barely match the flower's heart. At once you sent a short letter racing out and gathered the scholars skilled in poetry. One like me has neither the fine writing with which Li Taibai sang the peony nor the beautiful writing with which Xie Guangping (謝廣平) sang the plum blossom; looking back, what talent had I, to be included in this selection? At first you raised your brows and looked my way, and then gave me paper and bade me write. Thanks to someone who spoke for me first, you were kind enough to accept one as crooked and rotten as old wood; but though a clerk was sent to tell me at once, in the end I could not produce the words about the setting glow in flight. Overly clothed in praise as of a dragon robe, I was spared becoming a cover for a pickle jar. Pipes and song boiled up in rivalry and silks mingled fragrantly, and you specially set out a seat where the chopping board was shared, and let me wet a dust-covered brush. The drinking was as if jade liquor were poured for a moment in the hall of the Nine Immortals (九仙), and the honor surpasses a man of the Hundred Yue (百越) wearing a Zhangfu cap (章甫冠) for a while. Only now do I know how precious it is to be a scholar, and I whip on my heart to study the ancients again. My wife and children have changed the eyes with which they look at me, and my friends congratulate one another. The road to raising myself is near, so I hope for the roc's flight of three thousand li; and my feeling in praying for your long life is deep, so I look to the turtle's span of sixty thousand years.
Interlinear notes 2
幷序
A preface is included.
失一句。
One phrase has been lost.
百寶珠簾玳押新。輕風微拂不生塵。誰知畫戟森嚴地。却喚裒衣冷瘦身。香炷濃熏噴玉穗。酒波浮動皺金鱗。園中綠樹渾生子。庭畔紅榴始吐脣。塵世那知千葉貴。天工留作一番春。露葩半泫粧痕濕。日萼深燃醉暈勻。偸眼謾憐花解笑。搜膓空恨筆無神。自稱中聖狂徐邈。誤許能詩短李紳。半日暫叨堂上客。一生應詫世間人。重恩欲報良無計。但祝千年壽等椿。
On the blind of all manner of jewels the tortoiseshell weight is new, and a light wind brushes by so that no dust rises. Who would have known that in a place of stern painted windows one in loose clothes, cold and gaunt, would instead be summoned? The incense wick breathes thick and spouts jade ears of grain, and the wine's ripples stir and crimp golden scales. The green trees in the garden have all set their fruit, while the red pomegranate at the courtyard's edge only now spits out its lips. How should the dusty world know the worth of a thousand petals? Heaven's skill has kept one spring in reserve. The dew-beaded blossom, half wet, has damp traces of its toilet, and the sunlit calyx burns deep, its drunken halo even. Stealing a glance, I vainly find it dear that the flower knows how to smile, and ransacking my gut, I vainly regret that my brush has no divine power. I am the mad Xu Miao (徐邈), who called himself a match for the sage, the short Li Shen (李紳), wrongly allowed to be good at poetry. For half a day I presumed for a moment to be a guest in the hall, and all my life I shall surely boast of it to the world. I would repay this heavy kindness but truly have no means, and only pray for a life like the thousand-year cedrela.