王维

青溪

言入黄花川， 每逐青溪水；

随山将万转， 趣途无百里。

声喧乱石中， 色静深松里；

漾漾泛菱荇， 澄澄映葭苇。

我心素已闲， 清川澹如此。

请留盘石上， 垂钓将已矣！

Five-character-quatrain

Wang Wei

A GREEN STREAM

I have sailed the River of Yellow Flowers,

Borne by the channel of a green stream,

Rounding ten thousand turns through the mountains

On a journey of less than thirty miles……

Rapids hum over heaped rocks；

But where light grows dim in the thick pines,

The surface of an inlet sways with nut-horns

And weeds are lush along the banks.

……Down in my heart I have always been as pure

As this limpid water is……

Oh, to remain on a broad flat rock

And to cast a fishing-line forever！