Jia Dao (traditional Chinese:賈島; simplified Chinese:贾岛; pinyin:Jiǎ Dǎo; Wade–Giles:Chia Tao) (779–843),courtesy nameLangxian (浪仙), was a Chinese Buddhist monk andpoet active during theTang dynasty.
Jia Dao was born near modernBeijing; after a period as aBuddhistmonk, he went toChang'an. He became one ofHan Yu's disciples, but failed thejinshi exam several times. He wrote both discursivegushi andlyricjintishi. His works were criticised as "thin" bySu Shi, and some other commentators have considered them limited and artificial.[1]
According to Dr. James J.Y. Liu (1926–1986), a professor of Chinese and comparative literature, Jia's poemThe Swordsman (劍客) "seems...to sum up the spirit ofknight errantry in four lines."[2][3] "The Swordsman" reads in Liu's translation as follows:
A metric translation of the original Chinese poem with oneiamb per Chinese character[5] reads as follows:
A decade long I honed a single sword,
Its steel-cold blade still yet to test its song.
Today I hold it out to you, my lord,
and ask: "Who seeks deliverance from a wrong?"
The original Chinese:
劍客:十年磨一劍,霜刃未曾試.今日把示君,誰有不平事.
The opening line ofThe Swordsman is often used as a proverb to refer to a long and arduous undertaking.[6]
Pine, Red, and Mike O'Connor.The clouds should know me by now: Buddhist poet monks of China. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1999. Includes selection of dual-language poems.
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