陋室銘          劉禹錫

An epigraph in praise of my humble lodge       Translated by: Retiredbum

山不在高，有仙則名。水不在深，有龍則靈。

A mountain needn’t be famous for its height; the atmosphere of deity makes it a fairyland.

A lake needn’t be grand for its depth; the existence of a dragon makes it a legend.

斯是陋室，惟吾德馨。苔痕上皆綠，草色入簾

My lodge is modest, but my virtue elevates it to prominence.

Green mosses creep onto the doorstep; verdant grasses peep out from behind the bamboo curtains.

談笑有鴻儒，往來無白丁。可以調素琴，閱金經

無絲竹之亂耳，無案牘之勞形。南陽諸葛廬，西蜀子雲亭。

Those chatting with me are all polymaths; those gatecrashing my house are not ignorant.

In my humble lodge, I can joyfully play and fine-tune my plain lute without being disrupted by any dissonance and peacefully read the Sutra without being annoyed by any deskwork; so could Zhuge Liang in his thatched cottage of Nanyang and the Ziyun Pavilion of Xishu as well.

孔子云：「何陋之有？

Just like Confucius said, "It isn’t humble at all, is it?"