This morning my Chinese teacher, Sya Min, gave me a lovely bamboo fan that, on one side, shows Lau Dz (Old One) watching a turtle crawl, and, on the other side, a calligraphed poem.
I won't see Sya Min until I come back from UK in November. I'll miss her.
Of course I asked her to translate the calligraphed poem, so she and my other teacher, Ching Min, translated each word into English. Educated in Beijing, they had first studied the poem in elementary school and knew it from memory.
I've tried to do justice to the poet's intent and my teachers' feelings in translating the poem:
Maple Leaf Bridge Sheep Stop
the moon sinks
a crow screams
all is frozen
including the sky
I face a bank of red leaf maples
a fishing boat light
and sleepless worry
at midnight
outside Soo Jo city
a Shan Mountain Temple
bell sound strikes the boat
I am a stranger here
~~~~~~~
Jang Ji
China, 800 A.D.
translated 10-7-05
by Judy Prince
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