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53. A Drunken Song on Stone-Fish Lake, with Preface | Yuan Jie

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English translation

Mansou brews wine from the grain of his public fields; when he has a day off he carries the wine out onto the lake and gets drunk now and then.

Mansou, the Idle Old Man, is Yuan Jie's own name for himself. The first line makes him a man at leisure, preparing for the drunkenness to come.

In the middle of the cheerful drinking he leans out from the bank and reaches toward the fish for wine, has a boat carry it, and passes it round to everyone sitting there.

Taking wine from the fish is a trick on a real scene: a stone in the lake shaped like a fish is where he set the wine. The extravagance grows out of something actually there.

He fancies himself leaning on Baqiu, pouring wine on top of Junshan, with the company seated around Lake Dongting, while the wine boat floats back and forth against the waves — and so he makes this song to draw it out.

Fancies is the hinge. Taking Stone-Fish Lake for Lake Dongting is the illusion of drink, and also the method of the poem: a small thing handled as a great one.

Stone-Fish Lake, so like Dongting: the summer water brimming, Junshan green.

The three-character opening sets a short, quick tune. Even while imitating Dongting, he first grants the so like.

The mountain for a wine cup, the water for a pond, and the drinkers set out plain as day on the islets.

Another three-character line. Mountain, water, people compressed into a small picture. Plain as day means they can be counted, one by one.

The long wind raises big waves for days on end, and still it cannot stop anyone from running the wine boat.

Cannot stop is a stubborn phrase. Weather and appetite are set against each other, a small man with a large will.

I sit at Baqiu with a long gourd ladle, pouring for the company all around, to scatter my cares.

Cares appears only at the end. All before is merriment; a single word at the close uncovers it.

赏析 · Commentary

一个「疑」字，把石鱼湖撑成洞庭 · One Word, Fancies, Turns a Pond into Dongting

序里最要紧的是「意疑」二字。石鱼湖本是道州城外一小片水，元结偏偏把自己的醉态写成「倚巴丘」「酌君山」「诸子环洞庭而坐」。他不掩饰这是错觉，先用「疑」字交代清楚，再顺着错觉往下写。承认错觉，夸张反而站得住脚：读的人知道这是醉里的话，就不必去计较湖到底多大。这个办法和正文的「石鱼湖，似洞庭」是一套——先认下「似」，再放手铺陈。

The key word in the preface is fancies. Stone-Fish Lake is a small stretch of water outside Daozhou, and Yuan Jie chooses to write his drunken state as leaning on Baqiu, pouring wine on Junshan, the company seated around Dongting. He does not hide that it is an illusion: the word fancies marks it clearly first, and then he writes on along the illusion. Acknowledging the illusion is what makes the extravagance hold — the reader knows it is the talk of a drunk and stops asking how big the lake really is. The same move runs through the body's Stone-Fish Lake, so like Dongting: grant the likeness, then let go.

三字句撑住的节奏 · The Rhythm Held Up by Three-Character Lines

正文四句，前两句各是三、三、七的断法：「石鱼湖，似洞庭」「山为樽，水为沼」。三字一顿，读起来像有人在岸边一下一下点着数，后面接七字句把气放开。到了「长风连日作大浪，不能废人运酒舫」，全句七言，节奏稳下来，正好托住那句倔强的口吻。这种一张一弛的安排，与内容上的醉态是一体的：短句写眼前，长句写气性。

The four body lines break as three, three, seven: Stone-Fish Lake, so like Dongting; the mountain for a cup, the water for a pond. The three-character beat lands like someone tapping a count on the bank, and the seven-character line then lets the breath out. By the long wind raises big waves for days, and still cannot stop the wine boat, the line is full seven-character and steady, which is what carries the stubborn tone. This tighten-and-release is of a piece with the drunkenness: short lines for what is in front of him, long lines for the temper behind it.

末句才露的「愁」 · The Cares That Surface Only at the End

全诗写酒、写湖、写浪，语气一直是痛快的。最后一句「酌饮四座以散愁」才把「愁」说出来。元结做过道州刺史，任上见过赋税和流亡，石鱼湖上的纵酒并不只是闲适。把「散愁」压在末句，前面越热闹，这一下落得越重。这个收法和杜甫《观公孙大娘弟子舞剑器行》的「乐极哀来」是同一个路子：先把声势铺足，最后用一个字把底翻过来。

The poem writes wine, lake, and waves in an unreservedly glad key throughout. Only the final line, pouring for the company all around, to scatter my cares, names the cares. Yuan Jie served as prefect of Daozhou, where he saw taxes and displacement firsthand, and the drinking on Stone-Fish Lake is not mere leisure. Placing scatter my cares last means the louder what came before, the heavier this falls. It is the same close Du Fu uses in Watching a Pupil of Lady Gongsun Dance the Sword Dance: build the scale fully, then turn the floor over with one word.

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