韩愈《马说》/ An Essay on Horse by Han Yu

[studentyoung]

( Note: Bo Le in Chinese legend is God of Horse who keeps horses in Heaven. It’s said that in Spring and Autumn Period, there was someone called 孙阳 who was very good at judging horses, especially judging a swift horse by its appearance. In his days, people gradually forgot his name, but simply called him as Bo Le. Nowadays, Chinese people call someone who is a good judge of talent as Bo Le .)

《马说》

An Essay on Horse

韩愈

Writer: Han Yu

(translated by studentyoung)

http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/52623168.html?si=3

世有伯乐，然后有千里马。千里马常有，而伯乐不常有。故虽有名马，辱于奴隶之手，骈死于槽枥之间，不以千里称也。

世间有了伯乐，然后才会有千里马。千里马经常有，可是伯乐却不会经常有。所以即使是雄健的马，也只能在仆役的手下受屈辱，和普通的马一起死在马厩里，不会获得千里马的称号。

In this world, we must have Bo Le first, and then we can have swift horses. Swift horses are always available, but Bo Le is hard to find.” Though swift horses are available, they’re disgraced for being handled by those ignorant servants, or die with rips in the same shabby barn, without being titled as “Swift Horse”.

马之千里者，一食或尽粟一石。食马者，不知其能千里而食也。是马也，虽有千里之能，食不饱，力不足，才美不外见，且欲与常马等不可得，安求其能千里也。

日行千里的马，一顿或许能吃下一石粮食。喂马的人不懂得要根据它日行千里的本领来喂养它。(所以)这样的马，虽然有日行千里的才能，却吃不饱，力气不足，它的才能和美好的素质也就表现不出来，想要跟普通的马相等尚且办不到，又怎么能要求它日行千里呢?

Each day, Swift horses might consume grains a few times than those common ones do. Grooms, don’t know how swift they can be, feed them less than they need. Although these horses are swift ones, with an unsatisfied stomach, being lack of energy, they can’t turn their outstanding ability and their best side outward. They can’t be expected to work as well as those common ones, not to mention to be swift.

策之不以其道，食之不能尽其材，鸣之而不能通其意，执策而临之，曰：“天下无马。”呜呼！其真无马耶？其真不知马也！

鞭策它，不按正确的方法，喂养它，又不能使它充分发挥自己的才能，听它嘶叫，却不懂得它的意思，（只是）拿着鞭子站在它跟前说：“天下没有千里马！”唉!难道果真没有千里马吗?其实是他们真不识得千里马啊!

One spurring them in a wrong way, feeding them with insufficient grain, not understanding their whinnying in heartbreak, but the one is still shouting, “No swift horses in this world!”, while cracking his whip in from of them. —— Sigh ~ ~! Are there really no swift horses? As a matter of fact, the one just knows nothing about them!

Cheers!

[randall_flagg]

In my experience 伯乐 Bo2le4 is quite popular in spoken Chinese today:

他是我的伯乐！

等我的伯乐出现吧。。。

伯乐 is the person who realizes that you have a certain talent, who sees potential in you and so on. Hey, perhaps like an agent discovering a movie star?

[randall_flagg]

In my experience, 伯乐 Bo2le4 is also used in modern Chinese to describe someone who discovers your (hidden) talents. Fun concept!

等我的伯乐出现了再说吧。

他是我的伯乐。

May I ask what prompted you to post (and presumably translate) this essay?

[studentyoung]

May I ask what prompted you to post (and presumably translate) this essay?

What promoted me? Hmmm…….Hehehehehe. Sorry, I don’t know. I just simply think it’s short and meaningful. In a word, I like it, so I translate it. Hehe.

Cheers!