Cedar Grove (after Wang Wei)

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Cedar Grove (after Wang Wei)

I sit alone among the cedars,
play my guitar and hum.
In this dark forest
no eye spies me but the moon’s.

My take on Wang Wei’s “Bamboo Grove,” from this transliteration copied somewhere along the way:

alone sit dark bamboo among
strum lute again long whistle
deep forest man not know
bright moon come mutual shine

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“Cedar Grove” made its first appearance in March 2014. I adapted it to fit my circumstances…

You might find the Wikipedia entry on Wang Wei of interest.

 

26 thoughts on “Cedar Grove (after Wang Wei)”

  9. Reblogged this on Life is But This and commented:
    One of my students wrote this poem， “Bamboo Chamber” in Chinese calligraphy for an exhibition and asked me to translate it for him (since edited); my translation is quite literal and not my own experience so perhaps lacking that something that is in Robert’s version 🙂

    獨坐幽篁裡，彈琴複長嘯。
    深林人不知，明月來相照。

    Sitting alone in a bamboo grove

    I whistle the tune I am playing

    No one knows I’m in this forest

    The moon alone bears witness

    (c) Mary Tang

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