A brief collection of my attempted English renditions of selected Chinese poems, both contemporary and classical. (Each original classical Chinese poem may be presented in both the traditional and simplified forms, followed by the English translation.) Comments and suggested amendments welcome. (But I may not have the time to respond to every comment.) I am a follower of Andrew W F Wong's excellent blog "Classical Chinese Poems in English".
Saturday, 25 January 2014
O Stars on high -- 星， 黑漆穹蒼點點晶
O Stars on high --
Spark'ing dots in dark, endless skies.
Floating clouds sparse --
Brightly shines the Moon in space clear
Amid diamond sparks far and near.
"Take 2" for the following little ci:
TUNE: Shí Liù Zì Lìng: "16-character Ci "
TITLE: Xīng: "Stars"
-- by 一老年人 'A Man of Advanced Years'
-- Translated by Frank C Yue
《十六字令 ‧ 星》 一老年人
星，
黑漆穹蒼點點晶。
浮雲少， 清碧伴娟明。
Just my second thought:
ReplyDeleteStar!
Sparkling in the dark and endless sky afar.
Clouds floats few,
A clear sky with a moon shining brightly still!.
ReplyDeletethank you Cyberman2046,
for your contributions.
i don't think i'm really qualified to suggest any amendment to your pieces.
but in this particular ci, the author did explain to me that the last line
" 清碧伴娟明 " in fact refers to both the Moon and the stars shining. so, a suggested version might be:
Stars!
Sparkling in the dark and endless dome afar.
Clouds float few,
Clear star-studded sky with Moon shining brightly still!