东坡八首（第八首）Eight Poems on my Farm, the East Slope (8)

东坡八首（第八首）

(余至黄州二年，日以困匮。故人马正卿哀余乏食，为于郡中请故营地数十亩，使得躬耕其中，地既久荒，为茨棘瓦砾之场，而岁又大旱，垦辟之劳，筋力殆尽。释耒而叹，乃作是诗，自愍其勤。庶几来岁之入，以忘其劳焉！)

原作: 苏轼（字子瞻, 号东坡居士; 11世纪北宋）

英译: 闵晓红(2024.05)

马生本穷士，从我二十年。

日夜望我贵，求分买山钱。

我今反累生，借耕辍兹田。

刮毛龟背上，何时得成毡？

可怜马生痴，至今夸我贤。

众笑终不悔，施一当获千。

Eight Poems on my Farm, the East Slope (8)

(In our second year in Huangzhou, we often went hungry. My friend Ma Zhengqing, a poor scholar, negotiated with local officials to secure a piece of abandoned military land for us—about ten acres, long deserted, rocky and infertile. We worked ourselves ragged clearing rubble, thistles, and thorns, only to face a drought that threatened our crops. Now the long-awaited rain has come. I write these eight poems in gratitude for our teamwork, hoping our hard labour will be rewarded in the years to come and that we may one day be free of such toil.)

Chinese original by Su Shi

English version by Julia Min (Apr. 2024)

Mr Ma is my friend, a poor scholar,         

And a follower of mine for twenty years.

Sincere is his wish for my rise to fortune,

And for a share of land when he retires.

Now he is stuck with me in my bad luck.

Working his socks off like a local farmer.

It's like an attempt to make a winter coat

By scraping fur from the back of a turtle.

Yet I remain a man of values in his eyes,

And no one could ever change his mind.

All these years, little have I given him,

But a drop is paid in return for a spring.

Appreciation:

Ma Zhengqing was a poor scholar from Yongqiu—so poor, Su Shi once joked, that if they competed for poverty, "Ma would surely take first place." According to Su Shi's own account, Ma could not even afford to bury his own grandfather and father. As a young man, Ma served as Prefect of the Imperial Academy, a job he lost after Su Shi wrote a line of Du Fu's poem on his wall about a worthy scholar growing old in obscurity. Ma understood, and resigned that very day, choosing integrity over office.

When Su Shi was exiled to Huangzhou after the "Crow Terrace Poetry Case" in 1080, most acquaintances abandoned him. He was disgraced, stripped of rank and salary, with a starving family. It was then that Ma appeared. He negotiated with local officials for ten acres of abandoned military land—rocky, overgrown with thorns and rubble, but land. He also helped Su Shi build a modest house on the eastern slope, which Su Shi named "Snow Hall." From that plot and that house came the name "Su Dongpo."

Ma followed Su Shi for thirty-four years, rain or shine. That is why the teasing, self-mocking tone of this poem—"scraping fur from the back of a turtle"—conceals hidden tears. Su Shi knew how fortunate he was. The final lines speak the truth: "All these years, little have I given him, / But one drop is paid in return for a spring."

This reminds me of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18: "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." Su Shi gave Ma something eternal—a place in his poetry. Through these lines, we still remember the poor scholar from Yongqiu who helped create "Su Dongpo."

Reference:

1. Picture from 360doc.com (海曲上人）