Matching the Rhymes of Vice Minister Yi's Reply to the Jidang Flower Poem次韻李亞卿和寄地棠花詩
伏承佳作。感荷感荷。前所論地棠黜壇。皆未免乎訛。予更以置堂名之。因和一首。
I have received your fine work, and I thank you, I thank you. Since neither the 「jidang」 nor the 「chuldan」 discussed earlier escapes being wrong, I have named it anew 「chidang (置堂)」, and I reply with one poem accordingly.
Interlinear notes 2
需
This is Su (需).
幷序
The preface is carried along with it.
碧玉爲柯金作花。此花世譜始也出從何。花如可賞安問名。任却地棠黜壇訛不訛。草沒荒園不見地。煌煌擢秀宛與秋菊似。豈無紅杏緋桃灼灼如蒸霞。坤裳得餙獨此是。君不見貴人昔者攀折不放閑。置之堂上日貪看。從此始得置堂名。可笑君將混置百花壇。百花壇中虛自零。孰與華堂筵上媚嫵呈豐盈。此名君勿詰。我本平生命物頗能精。不唯狎近六宮金粉人。夤緣漸向柘衣親。粉蝶初驚側翅過。黃鸎欲較刷毛新。芸臺學士呼作黜壇辱渠色。高擡眼品好譏斥。黃扉老相稱以置堂榮爾心。豁分爽地勤封植。我於學士同襟韻。十駕猶追逸足迅。及此評花雖然趣不同。寵辱齊觀何者是昇何是擯。
Green jade was made its branches and gold was made its flowers; where did the lineage of this flower first come out from? If a flower is worth looking at, that is enough, so why ask its name? 「Jidang」 or 「chuldan」, wrong or not, I let it be. The rough garden is buried in grass and the ground cannot be seen, yet its bright outstanding form is wholly like an autumn chrysanthemum. How should red apricot and deep-pink peach not glow as though steeped in sunset? But it is this flower alone that has given the earth's skirt its adorning.
Have you not seen how in days past a noble plucked it and did not leave it idle, but set it on the hall and looked on it covetously day by day? From this it first got the name 「chidang」, and how laughable that you would mix it in among the terrace of all flowers. In the midst of the terrace of all flowers it would only fall of itself, to no purpose; how could that match showing its riotous beauty at a feast in a splendid hall?
This name you must not dispute. I have all my life been rather good at giving things their names. It was not only with the powdered and painted ones of the six palaces that I kept company; following where chance led, I grew friendly by degrees with clothes of mountain-mulberry color. The white butterfly is startled at first and tilts its wings and passes by; the oriole would match it against its newly preened feathers. The Academician of the Cloud Terrace called it 「chuldan」 and shamed its color, raising his eyes high to judge it and finding fault with relish. The old minister in the chancellor's seat named it 「chidang」 and brought your heart honor, parting off an open and airy piece of ground and diligently heaping it up and planting it. I am of one taste in the breast with the Academician, and though I run ten days, I am still chasing after his swift feet. When it comes to judging this flower our leanings differ, but look on love and shaming evenly, and what is rising and what is being cast out?
Interlinear notes 1
君詩云。直向百花壇上植。
In your poem you said, 「Plant it right on the terrace of all flowers.」