Witter Bynner and Kiang Kung-hu, trans.

From “Poems by Wang Wei”
From the Chinese

I HAVE come on the River of Yellow Flowers,

Borne by the current of a green stream

Rounding ten thousand turns through the mountains

To journey less than a hundred li.

Rapids hum on scattered stones,

Light is dim in the close pines,

The surface of an inlet sways with nut-horns,

Weeds are lush along the banks.

Down in my heart I have always been clear

As this clarity of waters.

Oh, to remain on a broad flat rock

And cast my fishing-line forever!