for Princess Yuzhen

——寄玉真公主

When today meets yesterday,

今古一相接，長歌懷舊遊。

sing of those who traveled

              ──李白

                        —Li Bai

妳隨秋風來

You arrive on autumn winds,

白馬在月下不停奔馳

those white horses racing the moon

風在林梢彈著琴

down curved roads, zithery tree limbs,

一縷縷，一絲絲

cloud scud

如曲折的道路飄忽的雲煙

If dew still clings to grassblades

未乾的露珠沾在草上

and stars hang deathless in the sky

未滅的星芒掛在天上

you come in a leaftorn whirl

妳隨秋風來像別枝的落葉

of your pulse and the night’s own

迴旋，飄墜

tumbling

踩踏今夜零亂的節拍

When did I leave? When did you appear?

我是什麼時候走的妳是什麼時候來的

Am I the night rain you awaited

已經過了千年

for a thousand years,

我還是妳癡心等待的夜雨嗎

the flame you could not forget?

已經過了千年

我還是妳不忍遺忘的燈魂嗎

Those hoofbeats summon me

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

白馬總是不停奔馳啊，暗中呼喚

roll pills of immortality beside a rainbow,

讓我為妳採藥在雲深的小徑

to become for you a cicada hidden underground since autumn,

讓我為妳煉丹在彩虹的橋頭

a swallow mud-daubing its spring nest

為妳，像秋蟬隱遁地底

像春燕巢泥一棟新的家屋

But I am too late

the mountain gate closed

然而時間已晚了

the red water fogged to green hallucinations

山門已關閉

If the moon sways a mountainful of loose hair

丹池只氤氳一團青夢

for whom does the wind at the door knock?

月色只搖曳滿山的亂髮

空空的叩門聲響是誰在秋風裡

Can two luan birds perch on one branch?

There’s no starry sky beyond this one,

是誰說過，鸞與鸞本該同枝

no bamboo mat opened under tall pines

然而星空之外不再有星空

Mysteries and legends coil upward

長松之下不再有簟蓆

from the mountain house where you lived

只有人所不知的傳說在傳說

繚繞妳最終住過的山房

When did you arrive? When did I leave?

The sweet years of our lives, their yearning,

妳是什麼時候來的我是什麼時候走的

roll like stones from a cliffside

華年已如懸崖滾落的石子

toward a bottomless valley

思念仍是一無底的深谷

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

今夜，我遙憶千年的敬亭山

as if its fog were only yesterday

憂傷彷彿昨日