Sima Qian's letter (pt 3, pressing ahead in small steps)

Tang Yin demonstrates the aesthetic of leisure

My lecture on Ming portraits went fairly well, and I'm excited about the consultation I have tomorrow over the view of the performance. With any luck, segments of the video will show up in this blog soon.

After class I was not so productive. After staying up late the night before, I fell asleep for a bit while working on classical Chinese. And I'm behind on grading, and the Tretter projects, and my translation work, etc. Still, I press ahead:

嚮者，僕亦嘗廁下大夫之列，陪奉外廷末議，不以此時引綱維，盡思慮。今以虧形，為掃除之隸，在闒茸之中，乃欲仰首伸眉，論列是非，不亦輕朝廷，羞當世之士邪？嗟乎！嗟呼！如僕尚何言哉！尚何言哉！且事本末，未易明也。

In the past, your servant was even once [on] the listing of officers at the foot of the hall. I had the honor of accompanying the outer court personally. I did not at that time draw on the rules and principles, nor did I use to the full my critical thinking ability. Now, my corrupted form is a slave who sweeps up remnants. As a mediocrity of low grade, were I to desire to lift up my head and stretch my brows as I discoursed on the ordering of right and wrong, wouldn't that do even more make light of the court and shame men of this world. Alas! Alas! As for your servant, now, what can he say now? What can he say now? Besides, the origins and conclusions of events are not easy to explain.

This passage was much more straightforward, except for the complex time sequence involved in 今...乃...不亦. Since the sequence begins with 今, the sentence becomes a clear example of a conditional or subjunctive mood (it's not clear to me the difference in cases like this.)