Ko-jin goes west from Ko-kaku-ro,
The smoke flowers are blurred over the river.
His lone sail blots the far sky.
And now I see only the river,
The long Kiang, reaching heaven.
The jeweled steps are already quite white with dew,
It is so late the dew soaks my gauze stockings,
And I let down the crystal curtain
And watch the moon through the clear autumn
龐德無疑開了創造性翻譯的先河,譯者對原文不求甚解,但是譯文清新淡雅,燦爛輝煌,日月青天,永垂青史。人們當然知道龐德有借他山之石攻我山之玉的意圖。之後的許多年裡,不時有人針砭龐德翻譯的準確性,喋喋不休。縱觀歷史,也許只有龐德這樣絕世的才華才會讓李白,王維,陶淵明以人類偉大詩人的名義走入西方詩歌的宮殿,整個西方才看到了什麼是不朽的詩句,什麼句子包含了舉世無雙,卻又十分淡定的豪情。這股清淡而又純凈的詩風把腐朽的浪漫主義一掃而空。從此意象主義(Imagisme)佔據了中心廣場,成就了現代主義(modernism)。英美詩歌從此走向了全新的道路,has never looked back.
(Deep in the mountain wilderness
Where nobody ever comes
Only once in a great while
Something like the sound of a far off voice,
The low rays of the sun
Slip through the dark forest,
And gleam again on the shadowy moss.