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, 15 February 2014
Smoke in the country takes wing while the cuckoos sing 杜鹃聲裏野煙浮 'e rendition 2'
《七絕 ‧ 春日》夜月星河
杜鹃聲裏野煙浮,
碧水盈盈蕩小舟。
堤岸桃紅新柳綠,
白雲春夢兩悠悠。
Qī Jué‧Chūn Rì:
"28-Character Quatrain . Spring Day"
-- by 夜月星河 'Night Moon Starry River'
-- Translated by Frank C Yue
Smoke in the country takes wing while
the cuckoos sing;
A small boat sways on the water aqaumarine.
On banks, red peach flow'rs and green
fresh willows are seen;
The white clouds and Spring dreams are
leisurely cruising.
this is my 'Take 2' rendition of Starry River's qi jue quatrain which the poet himself 夜月星河 has translated into a quatrain in English below: Bravo!
(and of course, ideally, a 4-line Chinese quatrain should be similarly translated into a 4-line English quatrain.)
Qī Jué‧Chūn Rì:
"28-Character Quatrain . Spring Day"
-- by 夜月星河 'Night Moon Starry River'
When cuckoos sing, smoke in the
wilderness is rising;
On the limpid water a tiny boat is rocking.
On both banks are green willows
and peach trees flowering;
Have carefree spring dreams while white leisure clouds are drifting.
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