格调

/gédiào/

Form and Melody

指诗歌的体制声调,包括思想旨趣和声律形式两方面,涉及诗歌批评的品味与境界。“格”指诗歌的体制合乎规范;“调”指诗歌的声调韵律。唐宋时期的一些诗论家倡导格调,意在确立诗歌的雅正标准。明清以后的格调说,多强调作品应符合儒家正统思想,这影响了诗人的情感表达与艺术创作。“格调”后来也用到其他文艺领域。

The term refers to the form, meter and content of poetry. It relates to artistic taste and appeal in poetry criticism. Ge (格) refers to the need to satisfy established rules of meter, while diao (调) refers to the need to adhere to rules of tone and rhyme scheme. Some poetry critics of the Tang and Song dynasties stressed the importance of form and melody in order to establish a set of elegant and authoritative standards for poetry. Theory on form and melody in the Ming and Qing dynasties often emphasized the importance of poets adhering to Confucian orthodoxy, thus constraining their expression of feelings and artistic creations. The term was later also used in discussions of other forms of art.

滋味

/zīwèi/

Nuanced Flavor

诗歌中能够使欣赏者反复回味的意蕴,实即诗歌美感。南朝诗论家钟嵘在《诗品》中提出,五言诗歌创作时应重视内容与形式的配合,从而使欣赏者在品读中回味无穷。后来“滋味”也指从事文艺创作时的一种趣味。

This term refers to an effect that allows lasting satisfaction and a rewarding feeling in poetry appreciation, which is a particular sense of beauty offered by poetry. In the Southern Dynasties, poetry critic Zhong Rong proposed in The Critique of Poetry that in writing five-character-per-line poems, one should pay special attention to the combination of form and content, so that readers could enjoy a poem with inexhaustible delight. Later, nuance also came to refer to a kind of taste in literary and artistic creation.

◎五言居文词之要,是众作之有滋味者也。(钟嵘《诗品序》)

(五言诗在各种诗体中居于首位,是众多作品中最有审美意味的。)

Five-character-per-line poems constitute the most important poetic form and are most richly imbued with nuance. (Zhong Rong: Preface to “The Critique of Poetry”)

◎至于陶冶性灵,从容讽谏,入其滋味,亦乐事也。(颜之推《颜氏家训·文章》)

(至于文章可以陶冶心灵,委婉地讽谏帝王,使读者感受到一种审美意味。这也是一大快事。)

A literary work cultivates the mind, implicitly satirizes or criticizes a monarch, and enables the reader to obtain a sense of aesthetic appreciation. Reading such works gives one great delight. (Yan Zhitui: Admonitions for the Yan Clan)