[updated September 2022]
Give a Happy Birthday Party to Huang the Eleventh
与 王 昌 龄 宴 黄 十 一
歸 来 卧 青 山
常 夢 遊 清 都。
漆 園 有 傲 吏
惠 我 在 招 呼。
书 幌 神 仙 籙
晝 屏 山 海 圖。
酌 霞 复 对 此
宛 似 入 蓬 壶。
Yu Wang Chang Ling Yan Huang Shi Yi
Gui lai wo qing shan
Chang meng you qing du.
Qi yuan you ao li
Hui wo zai zhao hu.
Shu huang shen xian lu
Zhou ping shan hai tu.
Zhuo xia fu dui ci
Wan si ru peng hu.
Give a Happy Birthday Party to Huang the Eleventh
I have returned to lie down in the green mountains
Often in a dream, travel to an honest and upright capital city.
Qi garden has a proud low-level official
I benefited from your invitation to come over for a visit.
You had drawn on heavy curtains the written characters of immortal celestial beings
As well as on screen room dividers, pictures of fantasy oceans and mountains.
Drink from the rosy clouds of dawn, the opposite of here and now
As if entering Penglai.
Notes:
Qi garden (Qi yuan): This is an historical allusion referring to Zhuangzi’s qi yuan, when he was a guardian for a grove of lacquer trees. Meng is comparing his friend Huang with the famous Zhuangzi.
Green mountains: solitude of rural seclusion
Penglai: Legendary island off the east coast of China, abode for the Chinese immortals, gods and goddesses.