各位朋友：

    我歉意極了，一忙竟然今天才有時間上來看看。不想多做解釋，依然那句老話，還忘各位置我一笑吧。

    近日與詩社諸友重溫東坡先生之《水調歌頭》，又一次有感於人對作品的理解雖年齡增長而加深之奧秘。想我五歲成誦乃為先父所逼，大兒五歲成誦，為我所逼使然。至於到了二兒，雖不敢再苦苦相逼（能刺激他說中文已屬不易），卻也曾屢屢嘗試。我曾以為，滾瓜爛熟似我者，當對東坡先生詠月詞瞭如指掌。其實大大不然。

    為說明我的新理解，特將早先的英文翻譯拿出來修改。貼在這裡，看各位朋友是否同意。

Prelude to the Melody of Water

Su Shi (Song Dynasty)

Translated by Jack Z. Zhao

Night of the Mid-fall Festival, year of Bing Chen (1076), I drank till dawn, got drunk and wrote this; in memory of Zi You, my brother.

When was this moon made so full and so bright?

A wine-cup in hand, I ask the well-lit sky tonight:

In your palace calendar, what month and date of a year

Is this night on record of yours to appear?

Riding the gentle breeze I wish to be gone

In a flight of return to where I belong.

Yet the crystal palace I’m afraid to be

Too high and too cold for me.

So, let me dance, and with my shadow I play,

What on earth could one find a better way?

The moon goes around and the mansion is red,

Through silk-dripped windows, light streams shed

Yet onto sleepless beds.

But she deserves no spite

For choosing my lonely moment to get full and bright.

Sorrow and joy, men part and meet again,

Bright and dim, the moon gets full or wane.

To be perfect nothing can,  

It has been true since time began.

Let’s wish that we all live long,

Though thousands of miles apart,

We share the same dance and the same song.