Li Bai and His Reincarnation李白再世

Li Bai， the self-taught medieval genius， remains China’s abiding titan of classical poetry.

李白，這位自學成才的中世紀天才，至今仍是中國古典詩歌界不朽的巨匠。

Born in 701， Li Bai famously began composing verse at age 10， trained as a master swordsman in his teens， and spent much of his Byronic life wandering the Chinese countryside seeking， with indifferent success， employment in various royal courts. Inspired drunkenness became so vital to his literary method that he was inducted into a sodden group of Tang Dynasty scholars called the Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup1. About a thousand of Li Bai’s poems survive still. Hundreds of millions of Chinese schoolchildren memorize Li Bai’s stanzas unto this day. According to legend， the great bard perished， drowned at age 62， while tipsily trying to touch the moon’s reflection in the Yangtze River.

李白生于公元701年，據說他10歲開始作詩，少年時練成一代劍客。他將自己拜倫式生活的大半時間用于游歷中國鄉間，輾轉于不同的朝廷謀求官位，卻始終未能得志。醉酒狀態成為他創作的重要靈感來源，以至于他位列“醉八仙”（嗜酒如命的八位唐朝文人）。李白的詩作約有1000首流傳至今。現在，數億中國學童仍要背誦李白的詩篇。據傳，這位偉大的詩人在62歲那年，于醉意朦朧之中試圖手撈長江中的月影，最終溺水而亡。

Li Hongbin， a stocky and sad-faced former accountant， knows all these Li Bai factoids. Not because he is merely another super-fan of China’s poetic idol. But because—to Li Hongbin—it’s more or less autobiography. Li Hongbin believes he is likely the living reincarnation of Li Bai.

李洪斌身材矮壯、面容悲戚，曾是一名會計。他通曉所有關于李白的軼事傳說。這并非因為他也是詩仙李白的一介“鐵粉”，而是因為對他來說，李白的故事大致就是他的自傳。李洪斌相信自己很可能就是李白的“轉世”。

“I’m confident of this，” said Li Hongbin， hunched in a derelict souvenir kiosk that he’s restored as a hermit’s hut at the Li Bai Cultural Center， in Qing-lian， the great poet’s childhood town in China’s western Sichuan province. “After 1，300 years， I’m the only poet living in Li Bai’s hometown who is still composing poetry. I even sign my work Li Bai.”

“對此我很確信。”李洪斌說。他擠在一座被他翻修成隱居之所的廢棄紀念品亭子里。這座亭子坐落在中國西部四川省青蓮鎮的李白故居景區，偉大詩人李白正是在青蓮鎮度過了童年。“經過1300年，李白的故鄉只有我這個詩人仍在作詩。我甚至在自己的作品上署名‘李百’。”

He’d exchanged home， family， friends， and job to pursue his muse in a seven-foot-by-seven-foot2 booth next to a concrete parking lot in a town of strangers. He eked out3 his groceries by selling “maybe not so perfect” samples of calligraphy to tourist guesthouses. The guesthouse owners indulged him， with a grin， as “our own Li Bai.”

李洪斌放棄了房子、家庭、朋友和工作，追隨李白來到陌生的小鎮，搬進混凝土停車場旁不到五平方米的小亭子里。他靠向家庭旅館販賣“也許不那么完美”的書法作品維持生計。旅館老板們也順從遷就他，笑著稱他為“我們自己的李白”。

I’m walking across the world. Traversing continents afoot， it’s impossible not to cartwheel into poetry everywhere.

我正在環游世界。徒步穿越各大洲的路上，很難不與各地的詩歌邂逅。

You can hear it in the songs of the Afar4 camel-men in desert Ethiopia. You see it in the quick finger clasps of lovers strolling blue-tiled Samarkand5 along Uzbekistan’s old Silk Road. Some countries， such as Georgia， are blessed in building more statues to their poets than to kings or warriors. In Kyrgyzstan， apprentice bards spend years committing a half-million-line national poem， the Epic of Manas6， to memory. Yet nowhere have I found poesy more embroidered into public life than in China.

在埃塞俄比亞的無垠沙漠中，你能從阿法爾駱駝牧人的歌聲里聽到詩。在烏茲別克斯坦古絲綢之路上，情侶們漫步于貼著藍瓷磚的撒馬爾罕，你能從他們輕輕相扣的手指間感受到詩。有些國家（如格魯吉亞）享有福氣，他們為詩人修建的雕像比為國王或戰士修的還要多。在吉爾吉斯斯坦，吟游詩人學徒花費多年時間背誦50萬行的民族史詩《瑪納斯》。然而，我發現沒有哪個地方比中國更能將詩歌融入公共生活。

In China births， marriages， and deaths are occasions for families to compose verse. Children learn ancient rhymes in their core curriculums. The doorways of city and village homes are flanked by good-luck couplets stenciled on red paper. Still， an actual， full-time， working poet is a rare discovery anywhere.

在中國，詩歌創作融入了家庭中的各種場合，比如出生、結婚和死亡。兒童在基礎課程中學習古老的韻律。無論鄉村還是城市，家家戶戶的門廊兩側都貼著紅紙印制、寓意吉祥的對聯。盡管如此，一位名副其實全職創作的詩人無論在哪都是稀罕物。

“Maybe I’m a very small poet right now， but I’m still a poet，” admitted Li Hongbin.

“也許現在我是個小詩人，但我仍然是詩人。”李洪斌坦承道。

Raised in present-day Sichuan， the eighth-century grand poet had ricocheted7 through rebellion， civil war， and a declining Tang Empire. Emperor Xuanzong expelled Li Bai from the imperial court. Later arrested for treason， the proto-beatnik8 was condemned to—though later recalled from—exile. Wandering the Yangtze Valley into rootless late middle age， one of Li Bai’s most famous poems drips weary melancholy：

八世紀的大詩人李白成長于蜀地（今天的四川），經歷了叛亂、內戰和唐朝的衰落。他曾被唐玄宗逐出宮廷，后來又因叛逆罪被捕。這位可視作“垮掉青年”原型的詩人雖被判流放，但最終得以赦免。沿長江流域漂泊至中年晚期的李白無所寄托，他最出名的一首詩流露出心中的疲憊和憂傷：

Before my bed the moonlight glitters，

床前明月光，

Like frost upon the ground.

疑是地上霜。

I look up to the mountain moon，

舉頭望明月，

Look down and think of home.

低頭思故鄉。

Li Hongbin too had roamed China." Along the way， he began boring into9 Li Bai’s compositions. He felt those 13-century-old meters humming in his own bones and eventually washed up at his hero-poet’s youthful stomping grounds at Qinglian in 2006. Shortly after he’d occupied his kiosk， which was built to peddle Li Bai gewgaws at the town’s sleepy Li Bai cultural park， his wife had served the divorce papers. He stays in contact with his two grown children via text messages on an antique dumb phone.

李洪斌也曾在中國四處漂泊。漂泊途中，他開始鉆研李白的作品，感覺那些有1300年歷史的格律在他骨子里回響。2006年，他最終在偶像詩人度過少年時代的青蓮鎮落下腳。他棲身于一個小亭子，那原本是為售賣李白紀念品而建的，位于鎮上冷清的李白故居景區。此后不久，他的妻子便遞來了離婚協議。他現在靠一部老式手機用短信與他兩個成年的孩子保持聯系。

“I’m sure about following the footsteps of Li Bai， but other parts of my life were confused，” Li Hongbin said. “I’m satisfied with where I am now， though.”

“我很確定要追隨李白的足跡，但我生活中的其他事情卻十分混亂。”李洪斌說，“不過，我對自己目前的處境很滿意。”

Li Hongbin took up a brush. He dabbed out another calligraphic axiom： “Strong morality can carry anything.”

李洪斌提起毛筆，又寫下一幅書法格言：“厚德載物。”

To reach Qinglian， I had trekked north from the megalopolis of Chengdu， through villages leveled and rebuilt since the apocalyptic10 quake of 2008. I had crossed warm， green rivers on footbridges where old uncles played aggressive checkers. This was late summer. The days were molten， and farmers had spread their corn to dry on the road verges. It was a landscape that I imagined the primordial11 Li Bai being comfortable in.

為了到達青蓮鎮，我從成都這座特大城市北行，穿過被2008年汶川大地震夷為平地之后又重建起來的村莊。我踏上人行橋跨過溫暖碧綠的河流，橋上有老大爺在下棋，氣勢咄咄逼人。此時正值晚夏，天氣炙熱，農民們將玉米攤在路邊晾曬。我見到的就是我想象中真正的李白會安于其中的景象。

Before leaving to walk the old Shu roads to the north， I asked the reborn poet what he would do if his son took up his father’s arduous trade.

在離開青蓮鎮踏上古蜀道北行之前，我問這位“轉世”的詩人，如果他的兒子也走上父親這條艱難的詩人之路，他會做什么。

“He wouldn’t do that，” Li Hongbin snorted. “But if he did， I guess I’d say， ‘It’s okay， but finish your schooling first.’”

“他不會走這條路的。”李洪斌哼了一聲，“但如果他真的要做詩人，我想我會說，‘可以，但先把學業完成。’”

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎者；單位：中國人民大學外國語學院）

1醉八仙指唐朝嗜酒的八位名士，亦稱酒中八仙、飲中八仙。《新唐書·李白傳》載，李白、賀知章、李適之、李琎、崔宗之、蘇晉、張旭、焦遂為“酒中八仙人”。

2 7英尺見方，約為4.55平方米。" 3 eke out 補……的不足；竭力維持（生計）。" 4阿法爾人是非洲之角的跨界民族之一。他們大多過著游牧生活，山羊是最重要的牲畜，也養駱駝和牛；沿海地區的人則以捕魚為生。埃塞俄比亞的阿法爾人數量最多。

5撒馬爾罕是今烏茲別克斯坦共和國第二大城市，地處阿姆河與錫爾河之間的中亞“兩河流域”，建立于公元前650年左右。這座城市地處古絲綢之路的要沖，是古代中國通往印度、阿拉伯以及歐洲的必經之地，也連接著中國、波斯和印度這三大文明區域，被探險家斯文·赫定（Sven Hedin）稱為“中亞城市中的珠玉”。" 6《瑪納斯》是柯爾克孜族英雄史詩，主要以口頭形式流傳于中國新疆南部的克孜勒蘇柯爾克孜自治州境內，新疆北部特克斯、昭蘇草原及塔城，以及南疆的和田、塔什庫爾干等山區。中亞的吉爾吉斯斯坦、阿富汗、塔吉克斯坦、哈薩克斯坦、烏茲別克斯坦的部分地區也是《瑪納斯》的流傳地域。

7 ricochet 彈開；反彈出去。" 8“垮掉的一代”（the beat generation）是第二次世界大戰后在美國出現的一個文學流派。“垮掉青年”（謔稱beatniks）對戰后美國社會現實不滿，又迫于麥卡錫主義的政治壓迫，便以“脫俗”方式來表示抗議。" 9 bore into sth盯著看。

10 apocalyptic像世界末日的；嚴重的，災難性的。" 11 primordial原始的；根本的；原生的。