Following the Rhymes of the Poem on the Young Girl Performers That Vice Minister Yi Presented to Duke Jinyang, and Offering It to His Excellency次韻李侍郞上晉陽公女童詩呈令公
僕竊聞。令公閤下以機務之隙。大集賓客。爲度夜之樂。其妓樂絲竹。則皆所常有。別有女童輩皆年可七八。聰利警悟。凡曰伶才。無所不曉。公於此爲樂。以愛君之心。不忍獨賞。進供御覽。上亦樂焉。至於連夜開宴。於是詩人文閣李需進詩於邸下。公嘆賞不已。遂進於上。上亦嘉奬。大加褒賞。此公之所以鎭定三韓。將致大平之嘉事也。予雖耄老。聞之不勝嘉歎。謹依韻和成一首奉呈云。
I have humbly heard that Your Excellency, my lord (閤下), taking a respite from affairs of state, gathered a great company of guests and made of it the pleasure of sitting out the night. The singing girls and the music were all such as are always to be had; but there were besides some young girls, all of them about seven or eight years old, so bright and quick that of all the arts called the entertainers' there was nothing they did not know.
Your Lordship took pleasure in them, yet out of love for the king could not bear to watch them alone, and so sent them up to the palace for His Majesty to see; and His Majesty too was pleased, going so far as to hold a feast that carried on through the night. Thereupon the poet Yi Su (李需) of the Hall of Letters (文閣) presented a poem to His Highness, and Your Lordship, admiring it without end, at last sent it up to the king, who also thought it fine, praised it greatly, and bestowed a reward.
This is a fine thing, showing how Your Lordship has settled the Three Han (三韓) and will in time bring about a great peace. Old though I am, on hearing of it I thought it fine and could not contain my admiration, and so I have humbly followed the rhymes, made one poem, and offer it up.
Interlinear notes 1
幷序
With a preface.
六實呈祥一蔕苽。人心混合偃金戈。地封萬戶名藩大。天與千年樂事多。欲共簪紳浮酒蟻。盡呼紈綺列眉蛾。龍膏遍熱同燈夕。鼉鼓爭搥勝歲儺。別有女童皆丱歲。簇成仙隊善嬌歌。雛鸎舌澁猶啼樹。稚燕翎成始出窼。只爲伶才生得耳。不然齔齒慣知何。六銖輕製紅衫細。雙角岐丫綠髻峨。纔是離懷唇免乳。誰敎邀寵眼廻波。檀槽欲抱微揎袖。彩毯將行更整靴。高閣快登如坦道。巍階穩踏似平坡。禁闈未必無名媛。新伎應稀見少娥。因想九重疏宴集。未容一日示醺酡。遣供宸眄資歡緖。不怕天顔轉笑渦。嘐亮絃聲嗚咽水。翩躚舞態往來梭。纏頭不計翔鸞錦。隨意兼拋織鳳羅。恩許六宮同翫賞。勑張百戲任蹉跎。當冬頃刻廻春氣。入夜從容到曙河。今古罕聞斯事勝。君臣孰有此時和。美哉文閣能詩客。贏得千金一筆哦。
A melon bearing six fruits on a single stem offers up an auspicious sign, and the hearts of the people, joined as one, have laid the iron spears down. Enfeoffed with ten thousand households, his famed domain is great; Heaven grants him a thousand years, and joyful things are many. With the officials he would set the froth afloat upon the wine, and calling in all the silk-robed ones, ranged their lovely brows in rows. Dragon's fat is burned all round, as on a lantern-lit festival night, and crocodile-hide drums are beaten in rivalry, surpassing the twelfth-month exorcism. Besides these there are young girls, all of an age to wear their hair in braids, who gather to form a rank of immortals and sing beguilingly well. The young oriole, though its tongue be stiff, still sings from the tree; the young swallow, once its feathers are grown, at last leaves the nest. They are simply born with the entertainers' gifts; were it not so, what could they have learned and known at the age of changing teeth? Their crimson jackets, made light as a garment of six ounces, are fine; their green coiled hair, parted and bound into two horns, is piled high. Scarcely out of the arms that held them, their lips but lately dry of milk — who taught them to seek love and turn the waves in their eyes? To take up the birchwood lute they roll their sleeves up a little; to step onto the colored carpet they tighten their shoes again. They climb the high pavilion at a bound as though it were level road, and tread the steep stairs at ease as though they were a flat hillside. Within the palace there is surely no lack of famous beauties, but children with these new arts must be rare to see. I think that in the ninefold palace feasts are seldom held, and not for one day has he shown a flushed and merry face. Offered to the royal eye to help along the thread of pleasure, there is no need to fear for the smile that plays on the king's face. The clear ring of the strings is sobbing water, and the fluttering turns of the dance are a shuttle going to and fro. Rewards of luan-bird patterned silk are given beyond all reckoning, and at his will even gauze woven with phoenixes is thrown to them. Graciously he allows the Six Palaces (六宮) to watch along with him, and bids them set out every kind of play, leaving it to go as the hours will. Winter though it is, in a moment the breath of spring comes round; and though the night draws on, quietly it reaches the dawn River of Heaven. Of old and now alike, such a thing is seldom heard of; when have king and subject ever been so of one mind as at this time? How fine — that hand of the Hall of Letters (文閣), so skilled at verse, which with one chanting of the brush has won a thousand pieces of gold.