豬肚

In the beginning,
All external vision and sound are suspended,
Perpetual thought itself gropes in time and space;
Then, the spirit at full gallop reaches the eight limits of the cosmos,
And the mind, self-buoyant, will ever soar to new insurmountable heights.
When the search succeeds,
Feeling, at first but a glimmer, will gradually gather ino full luminosity,
Whence all object thus lit up glow as if each the other's light reflects.
Drip-drops are distilled afresh from a sea of words since time out of mind,
As quintessence that savours of all the aroma of the ix Arts.
Now one feel blithe a swimmer calmly borne by celestial waters,
And then, as a diver into a secret world, lost in subterranean currents.
Hence,
Arduously sought expressions, hitherto evasive, hidden,
Will be like stray fishes out of the ocean bottom to emerge on the angler's hook;
And quick-winged metaphors, fleeting, far-fetched
Feathered tribes, while sky-faring are brought down from the curl-clouds by the fowler's bow.
Thus the poet will have mustered what for a hundred generations awaited his pen,
To be uttered in rimes for a thousand ages unheard.
Let the full-blown garden flowers of the ancients in their own morning glory stand.
To breathe life into late blossoms that have yet to bud will be his sole endeavour.
Eternity he sees in a twinkling,
And the whole world he views in one glance.

這樣的英譯如果沒有充分注釋又如果讀者於中國古典文學無法窮通掌握，就算字面意義通曉暢明，讀起來一如以英文詩格寫作，終究霧裡看花知其然不知其然。"Six Arts"可能好明白點，要說到"the eight limits of cosmos"可能洋鬼子想破頭都想不出宇宙的八個極點在哪裡。又如「漱」之一字用慣李斯德霖的老外就算粗通中文恐怕也不知道「芳」要如何個「漱」法，於是乎破句的As quintessence便提點出後面動作的文藝指涉，這種譯句目今譯者等閒難及。「觀古今於須臾，撫四海於一瞬」可能是這整段最不涉及中西差異的句子，意境卻最難描摹，陳氏以one views in one glance，著形辭意卻於形外。

原文作：
其始也，皆收視反聽，耽思傍訊，精騖八極，心游萬仞；其致也，情瞳矓而彌鮮，物昭晰而互進。傾羣言之瀝液，漱六藝之芳潤；浮天淵以安流，濯下泉而潛浸。於是沈辭怫悅，若游魚銜鈎而出重淵之深；浮藻聯翩，若翰鳥纓繳而墜曾雲之峻。收百世之闕文，采千載之遺韻；謝朝華於已披，啟夕秀於未振。觀古今於須臾，撫四海於一瞬。