像茫然的讀者

As if on a slope

不知道如何進入

before a grove of Mahal bamboo,

斜坡上那一叢花眉竹

not knowing how to enter,

詩畫難分的意境

it’s hard to say

永夜潑墨未乾，月色

where poetry parts from painting.

像吸墨的黃紙

Across the yellow, thirsty page of moonlight

輕輕蓋住

night spills its endless ink,

一幅文與可的墨竹圖上

a scroll of dark bamboo

此時風鳴兩岸

by Wen Yuke. Late wind

搖擺的竹樹婆娑作響

whistles the banksides,

竹葉圍攏唼喋，商略

swaying the canes, their leaves

一首輞川絕句的韻腳

stirred to the soft murmur

of foraging birds, of fish

discussing a Wheel River poem,

its final rhyme.

Mahal bamboo

: A species of thick growing, clumping bamboo particularly suited to stabilizing riverbanks.

Wen

Yuke

: Northern Song dynasty painter and poet (1018—1079), courtesy name Yuke, famous for his ink bamboo painting.

Wheel River

: Shaanxi province mountain valley where Wang Wei composed with Pei Di the famous Wheel River cycle of poems, also known as the

Wangchuan Ji

.