中英雙語話中國歷史名人 第45期:陶淵明

Tao Qian (365~427) born in Xunyang (Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province), also called Tao Yuanming, courtesy name Yuanliang, was one of China's greatest poets and a noted recluse.

陶潛(365 ~ 427 )，江西潯陽(今九江)人，也叫陶淵明，字元亮。中國最偉大的詩人之一，著名隱士。

Born into an impoverished aristocratic family, Tao Qian took a minor official post while in his 20s in order to support his aged parents.

陶潛出生在一個落魄貴族家庭。20多歲時爲了養活年邁的雙親，陶潛做了個小官。

After about 10 years at that post and a brief term as county magistrate, he resigned from official life, repelled by its excessive formality and widespread corruption.

陶潛在那個職位上幹了大約10年，又做了短期的縣令之後辭職，因爲他厭惡官場的繁文縟節和普遍的腐敗。

With his wife and children he retired to a farming village south of the Yangtze River.

陶潛和妻子、孩子一起隱退在長江南的一個農莊。

Despite the hardships of a farmer's life and frequent food shortages, Tao was contented, writing poetry, cultivating the chrysanthemums that became inseparably associated with his poetry, and drinking wine, also a common subject of his verse.

儘管農民生活非常辛苦，並且經常要忍飢挨餓，但是陶潛可以飲酒(他的詩中常見的主題)、作詩、養菊(與他的詩歌有着不可分割的聯繫)，他的內心是滿足的。

Because the taste of Tao's contemporaries was for an elaborate and artificial style, his simple and straightforward poetry was not fully appreciated until the Tang Dynasty(618~907).

因爲與陶潛同時代的人喜歡“富豔難蹤”的文章，所以他平淡自然的詩篇直到唐朝(618~907 )纔得到充分的重視。

A master of the five-word line, Tao has been described as the first great poet of tianyuan ("fields and gardens"), landscape poetry inspired by pastoral scenes (as opposed to the then-fashionable shanshui “mountains and rivers" poetry).

作爲寫五言詩的大師，陶潛被稱爲第一個偉大的田園詩(與當時盛行的山水詩相對)人。

Essentially a Daoist in his philosophical outlook on life and death, he also freely adopted the elements of Confucianism and Buddhism that most appealed to him.

儘管從本質上來說陶潛持的是道教的生死觀，但是他還自由地採用了儒家學說和佛教的思想元素。陶潛最被吸引的是佛教。