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E872
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Im Kyŏng on
Hyŏnho’s Trivial Tales (Compendium of Remarks on Poetry)
Entry Text
驢背春眠穩。靑山夢裡行。覺來知雨過。溪水有新聲。此一絕未知誰作。而世稱絕佳。余以為不然。雨過而有水聲。則雨之暴也。遇暴雨而不覺。猶作驢背之夢。語不近理。唐人詩。春眠不覺曉。處處聞啼鳥。趣眞而語得。自成韻格。詩當如此矣。大抵泥於意趣。墬失格律。詩家之禁。而專務格律。失其意趣。尤不可也。趣屬乎理。格屬乎氣。理為之主。氣為之使。從容乎禮法之塲。開元之際。其庶幾乎此。宋人滯於理。明人拘於氣。雖有淸濁虛實之分。而均之有失也。評者曰。開元之詩。雍容君子。端委廟堂也。宋人之詩。委巷腐儒。擎跽曲拳也。明人之詩。少年俠客。馳馬章臺也。亦可謂善喩也
Riding on a donkey, I sleep soundly in spring. Green mountains I travel in my dream.Waking up, I realize a rain had passed byfor the streams have new tunes. This quatrain by an unknown person has been heralded as exceptional (chŏlga). However, I do not agree. If a rain passed by and the streams are noisy, then it must have been a rainstorm. Not waking up in a rainstorm and still dreaming on a donkey’s back does not make sense. In a Tang poem, 春眠不覺曉處處聞啼鳥 Sleeping in spring, I didn’t realize the morning had come.Everywhere I hear the warbling birds. a true charm (ch’wijin) was captured in language (ŏ) and rhyming and meters (un’gyŏk) are naturally met. This is how a poem should be. On the whole, a poet should avoid soiling meaning and charm (ŭich’wi) and going downhill to lose the poetic forms (kyŏngnyul). He should also avoid focusing only on the poetic forms at the expense of meaning and charm. Charm is based on principle. Style (kyŏk) is based on vigor. When principle (ri) takes the lead and vigor (ki) is employed, the way of principle will be displayed in abundance. The poems from the Kaiyuan era are mostly like that. The Song poets were stagnant in principle. The Ming poets were constrained by vigor. They had difficulty differentiating clear and turbid, real and unreal, and hence have failed equally. As one critic said, “The poems from the Kaiyuan era are like a graceful and poised gentleman in ceremonial attire in the hall. The poems by the Song poets are like a corrupt scholar doing a ceremonial bow in the back alley. The poems by the Ming poets are like a youthful knight-errant galloping on a horse in the courtesans’ district.” This can be considered a good analogy.
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