I hope you will like my rendition of Wang Wei: House in the Bamboo Grove (王維: 竹里館) in an XAXA rhyming scheme as in the original Chinese:-
Wang Wei (701-761): House in the Bamboo Grove
1 Alone I sit, in the bowers of the bamboo trees,
2 My zither I pluck, then, long and loud I sing.
3 Deep in the forest, none knows I exist,
4 None but the moonlight, to me, solace you bring.
Translated by Andrew W.F. Wong (Huang Hongfa) 譯者: 黃宏發
18 February 2008 (revised 7.3.2008)
Translated from the original - 王維: 竹里館
1 獨坐幽篁裡
2 彈琴復長嘯
3 深林人不知
4 明月來相照
I have revised Meng Haoran: A Morning in Spring (孟浩然: 春曉) in my February post as follows:
In spring, I sleep, unaware morning is here,
From near then far, trilling songbirds I hear.
In the din of the wind and rain all through the night,
How many blossoms fallen? Not few, I fear!
This follows an AAXA rhyming scheme as in the original Chinese.
The same goes for Li Bai: Downstream to Jiangling (李白: 下江陵) in my January post.
Postscript 24.4.2008):
Now, back to my last (March 2008) post, I have now further revised my translation of "House in the Bamboo Grove" by Wang Wei (701-761) as follows:-
Alone I sit in the shade of the bamboo trees,
My strings I pluck, then long and loud I sing.
Deep in the forest, none knows I exist,
None but the moon, to me she comes a-shining.
Notes:-
*I am grateful to William P. Coleman who recently corresponded with me at length in his blog http://williampcoleman.wordpress.com on his and my versions of the poem. My use of "shade" instead of "bowers" in line 1 and "strings" instead of "zither" in line 2 owe much to his criticism.