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.
WANG WEI, translated by Kenneth Rexroth)
但是能夠博得眾目的還是要數 Pound and Snyder.
「Take only memories, leave nothing but footprints..」 Chief Seattle