University of Virginia Library

元和天子神武姿， 彼何人哉軒與羲，
誓將上雪列聖恥， 坐法宮中朝四夷。
淮西有賊五十載， 封狼生貙貙生羆；
不據山河據平地， 長戈利矛日可麾。
帝得聖相相曰度， 賊斫不死神扶持。
腰懸相印作都統， 陰風慘澹天王旗。
愬武古通作牙爪， 儀曹外郎載筆隨。
行軍司馬智且勇， 十四萬眾猶虎貔。
入蔡縛賊獻太廟。 功無與讓恩不訾。
帝曰汝度功第一， 汝從事愈宜為辭。
愈拜稽首蹈且舞， 金石刻畫臣能為。
古者世稱大手筆， 此事不係於職司。
當仁自古有不讓， 言訖屢頷天子頤。
公退齋戒坐小閣， 濡染大筆何淋漓。
點竄堯典舜典字， 塗改清廟生民詩。
文成破體書在紙， 清晨再拜鋪丹墀。
表曰臣愈昧死上， 詠神聖功書之碑。
碑高三丈字如斗， 負以靈鼇蟠以螭。
句奇語重喻者少， 讒之天子言其私。
長繩百尺拽碑倒。 麤沙大石相磨治。
公之斯文若元氣， 先時已入人肝脾。
湯盤孔鼎有述作， 今無其器存其辭。
嗚呼聖皇及聖相， 相與烜赫流淳熙。
公之斯文不示後， 曷與三五相攀追？
願書萬本誦萬過， 口角流沫右手胝；
傳之七十有二代， 以為封禪玉檢明堂基。

The Son of Heaven in Yuanhe times was martial as a god
And might be likened only to the Emperors Xuan and Xi.
He took an oath to reassert the glory of the empire,
And tribute was brought to his palace from all four quarters.
Western Huai for fifty years had been a bandit country,
Wolves becoming lynxes, lynxes becoming bears.
They assailed the mountains and rivers, rising from the plains,
With their long spears and sharp lances aimed at the Sun.
But the Emperor had a wise premier, by the name of Du,
Who, guarded by spirits against assassination,
Hong at his girdle the seal of state, and accepted chief command,
While these savage winds were harrying the flags of the Ruler of Heaven.
Generals Suo, Wu, Gu, and Tong became his paws and claws;
Civil and military experts brought their writingbrushes,
And his recording adviser was wise and resolute.
A hundred and forty thousand soldiers, fighting like lions and tigers,
Captured the bandit chieftains for the Imperial Temple.
So complete a victory was a supreme event;
And the Emperor said: "To you, Du, should go the highest honour,
And your secretary, Yu, should write a record of it."
When Yu had bowed his head, he leapt and danced, saying:
"Historical writings on stone and metal are my especial art;
And, since I know the finest brush-work of the old masters,
My duty in this instance is more than merely official,
And I should be at fault if I modestly declined."
The Emperor, on hearing this, nodded many times.
And Yu retired and fasted and, in a narrow workroom,
His great brush thick with ink as with drops of rain,
Chose characters like those in the Canons of Yao and Xun,
And a style as in the ancient poems Qingmiao and Shengmin.
And soon the description was ready, on a sheet of paper.
In the morning he laid it, with a bow, on the purple stairs.
He memorialized the throne: "I, unworthy,
Have dared to record this exploit, for a monument."
The tablet was thirty feet high, the characters large as dippers;
It was set on a sacred tortoise, its columns flanked with ragons....
The phrases were strange with deep words that few could understand;
And jealousy entered and malice and reached the Emperor --
So that a rope a hundred feet long pulled the tablet down
And coarse sand and small stones ground away its face.
But literature endures, like the universal spirit,
And its breath becomes a part of the vitals of all men.
The Tang plate, the Confucian tripod, are eternal things,
Not because of their forms, but because of their inscriptions....
Sagacious is our sovereign and wise his minister,
And high their successes and prosperous their reign;
But unless it be recorded by a writing such as this,
How may they hope to rival the three and five good rulers?
I wish I could write ten thousand copies to read ten thousand times,
Till spittle ran from my lips and calluses hardened my fingers,
And still could hand them down, through seventy-two generations,
As corner-stones for Rooms of Great Deeds on the Sacred Mountains.