——寄玉真公主

for Princess Yuzhen

今古一相接，長歌懷舊遊。

When today meets yesterday,

              ──李白

sing of those who traveled

                        —Li Bai

妳隨秋風來

白馬在月下不停奔馳

You arrive on autumn winds,

風在林梢彈著琴

those white horses racing the moon

一縷縷，一絲絲

down curved roads, zithery tree limbs,

如曲折的道路飄忽的雲煙

cloud scud

未乾的露珠沾在草上

If dew still clings to grassblades

未滅的星芒掛在天上

and stars hang deathless in the sky

妳隨秋風來像別枝的落葉

you come in a leaftorn whirl

迴旋，飄墜

of your pulse and the night’s own

踩踏今夜零亂的節拍

tumbling

我是什麼時候走的妳是什麼時候來的

When did I leave? When did you appear?

已經過了千年

Am I the night rain you awaited

我還是妳癡心等待的夜雨嗎

for a thousand years,

已經過了千年

the flame you could not forget?

我還是妳不忍遺忘的燈魂嗎

Those hoofbeats summon me

白馬總是不停奔馳啊，暗中呼喚

to pluck herbs for you from the path beyond the clouds,

讓我為妳採藥在雲深的小徑

roll pills of immortality beside a rainbow,

讓我為妳煉丹在彩虹的橋頭

to become for you a cicada hidden underground since autumn,

為妳，像秋蟬隱遁地底

a swallow mud-daubing its spring nest

像春燕巢泥一棟新的家屋

But I am too late

然而時間已晚了

the mountain gate closed

山門已關閉

the red water fogged to green hallucinations

丹池只氤氳一團青夢

If the moon sways a mountainful of loose hair

月色只搖曳滿山的亂髮

for whom does the wind at the door knock?

空空的叩門聲響是誰在秋風裡

Can two luan birds perch on one branch?

是誰說過，鸞與鸞本該同枝

There’s no starry sky beyond this one,

然而星空之外不再有星空

no bamboo mat opened under tall pines

長松之下不再有簟蓆

Mysteries and legends coil upward

只有人所不知的傳說在傳說

from the mountain house where you lived

繚繞妳最終住過的山房

When did you arrive? When did I leave?

妳是什麼時候來的我是什麼時候走的

The sweet years of our lives, their yearning,

華年已如懸崖滾落的石子

roll like stones from a cliffside

思念仍是一無底的深谷

toward a bottomless valley

今夜，我遙憶千年的敬亭山

Tonight, I remember a thousand-year-old Jingting Mountain

憂傷彷彿昨日

as if its fog were only yesterday