As if on a slope

像茫然的讀者

before a grove of Mahal bamboo,

不知道如何進入

not knowing how to enter,

斜坡上那一叢花眉竹

it’s hard to say

詩畫難分的意境

where poetry parts from painting.

永夜潑墨未乾，月色

Across the yellow, thirsty page of moonlight

像吸墨的黃紙

night spills its endless ink,

輕輕蓋住

a scroll of dark bamboo

一幅文與可的墨竹圖上

by Wen Yuke. Late wind

此時風鳴兩岸

whistles the banksides,

搖擺的竹樹婆娑作響

swaying the canes, their leaves

竹葉圍攏唼喋，商略

stirred to the soft murmur

一首輞川絕句的韻腳

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

.