Thursday, March 27, 2008

A Green Steam 青溪




五言古诗
王维
青溪

言入黄花川, 每逐青溪水;
随山将万转, 趣途无百里。
声喧乱石中, 色静深松里;
漾漾泛菱荇, 澄澄映葭苇。
我心素已闲, 清川澹如此。
请留盘石上, 垂钓将已矣!


Five-character-quatrain
Wang Wei
A GREEN STREAM

I have sailed the River of Yellow Flowers,
Borne by the channel of a green stream,
Rounding ten thousand turns through the mountains
On a journey of less than thirty miles....
Rapids hum over heaped rocks;
But where light grows dim in the thick pines,
The surface of an inlet sways with nut-horns
And weeds are lush along the banks.
...Down in my heart I have always been as pure
As this limpid water is....
Oh, to remain on a broad flat rock
And to cast a fishing-line forever!