Jiang Yan lived during the Liang dynasty of the Northern and Southern
Dynasties Period, in the area now known as Henan province. Although he came from
a poor family, he as extremely hard working, and so became a high-level civil
official. Jiang Yan was very talented in the area of literature. Both his poems
and his essays were outstanding, and he was known by nearly all the scholars of
his time.
Jiang Yan once had a dream that a man came to him and said, "My name is Guo
Pu. One of my pens has been here with your for several years; please give it
back to me now." In his pocket, Jiang Yan found a multi-colored pen, which he
returned to Guo Po.
As Jiang Yan grew older,the poems and essays that he wrote were not as good
as those he had written when he was younger. Everyone said that when Jiang Yan
gave away his multi-colored pen, he used up the last of his talent.
When a person today is so satisfied with himself that he ceases striving to
improve, and therefore beings to regress, we can say that "Official Jiang has
used up his talent."
南北朝時,有一位名叫江淹的人,他是當時有名的文學家。江淹年輕的時候很有才氣,會寫文章也能作畫??墒钱斔昀系臅r候,總是拿著筆,思考了半天,也寫不出任何東西。因此,當時人們謠傳說:有一天,江淹在涼亭里睡覺,做了一個夢。夢中有一個叫郭璞的人對他說:“我有一支筆放在你那里已經(jīng)很多年了,現(xiàn)在應該是還給我的時候了。”江淹摸了摸懷里,果然掏出一支五色筆來,于是他就把筆還給郭璞。從此以后,江淹就再也寫不出美妙的文章了。因此,人們都說江郎的才華已經(jīng)用盡了。
江郎才盡 【翻譯】Official Jiang Uses Up His Talent.