Jade In The Mud
Another mysterious poem
Jade In The Mud
This is yet another devastating predictive poem about a character we haven’t yet met. This is actually a pretty straightforward poem and description, though it won’t be obvious who this poem refers to for a while. There are a few interesting things happening linguistically in this poem, though, that are worth pointing out.
My Translation
Below that was a painting of a beautiful piece of jade that had been dropped into the mud. Its poem read:
You wanted to be pure – but were you ever pure?
Claiming to be as empty as the clouds is not necessarily emptiness.
What a shame that the piece of gold and jade
Winds up falling down into the mud!
Translation Critique
Hawkes
David Hawkes clearly understands the Buddhist connotations in this poem. He translates the first two lines like this:
For all your would-be spotlessness
And vaunted otherworldliness
The “vaunted otherworldliness” is a reference to the idea of claiming emptiness (i.e. Buddhist enlightenment, 雲空) when you’re not really “empty” (未必空). It’s a pretty interesting translation, though this is more a reinterpretation of the poem than an actual proper translation. Personally, I find it more interesting to learn the Buddhist phrase and what it means than to just skip ahead to the interpretation.
Hawkes kind of butchers the final two lines:
You that look down on common flesh and blood,
Yourself impure, shall end up in the mud.
Again – this is a fine interpretation, but isn’t really a translation of the original. The rhyme scheme is there, but the rhythm is also way off.
Yang
The Yangs do an even worse job with the first two lines than David Hawkes:
Chastity is her wish,
Seclusion her desire
It’s missing the scolding that makes a fundamental part of the original.
It’s not awful, I suppose, but it’s still not a proper translation.
Chinese Text
後面又畫著一塊美玉，落在泥汙之中。其斷語云：
欲潔何曾潔？雲空未必空。可憐金玉質，終陷淖泥中！
Translation Notes
斷語 (duànyǔ) means conclusion, judgment, or verdict. I’ve translated this simply as “poem” for the sake of consistency. Actually, every single one of these poems is a type of “verdict” for these poor girls.
欲潔何曾潔 and 雲空未必空 are parallel passages. This girl wanted to be pure (欲潔) but was never quite pure (何曾潔), and tried to be empty as a cloud (雲空) but was never quite empty (未必空). In this case, 空 is a reference to the Buddhist term शून्यता (Śūnyatā), which has a number of religious connotations. Basically, the argument here is that this particular girl is a hypocrite. However, you could also argue that she is the victim of self-delusion and the cruelty of the world. But we’ll have to wait until we actually get to know her to analyze all of that.
質 (zhì) means matter or essence. It’s made of gold and jade (金玉), but winds up being dirtied by the mud (淖泥).