湖畔插花

寒烟

湖畔凭眼眺
薄雾浮远礁
天水浑无界
野花岩隙摇
黄藓涂赭石
玉苔竞风骚
萋萋百草杂
灼灼新叶俏
有花红胜萱
婷婷且袅袅
细瓣迸星火
灿然岩间笑
妙哉无名株
堪为钵中宝
丰瘦三两支
高矮勿须挑
参差当中立
雪菊俸仙瑶
晶钵浴纤足
玄石揽细腰
草籽帐轻纱
柏针织睡袍
清芳润歌喉
微波荡琴箫
风吹衣裙舞
潮涌长发飘
忴花不耐渴
清水漫石浇
移钵案正中
赞叹满堂高
柔艳照顽石
坚韧映妖娆

Flower Arrangement: Beside the Lake

Translated by Tim Bushnell

Beside the lake
Far off shore, a jagged trail of rocks partly shrouded
in mist
Water and sky fused
Nearby, wildflowers gently sway between the rocks
Scattered lichen in bright jade and bursts of orange
Grasses of many statures and hues
Shrubs bristling with new tips, tender, in bright green
with rosy flushes

A flower of a kind so engrossingly, luminescently red 
shading to deep orange and just to yellow in the center
and almost to black at its edge
Each slender petal a lick of fire
Its stem a gracefully curved, yet perfectly erect spine
The whole, a smiling grace deftly surpassing the rocks 
from which it emerges
A wild beauty that might live and pass unnoticed
But you will be my treasure

I pluck several of you, choosing no individual
Some in full flower, some still in bud,
tall, short, facing this way and that
A full and random spectrum of your aspects gathered for the center
With an aura of white flowers floating at your waist
above an embroidery of spruce needles
And all about and through,
tiny, quavering grains of feathered grasses hanging in a mist
A crystal bowl to bathe your feet
and sturdy rocks nestled for your support
Your fragrance raises a song in my throat
My skirt dances in the wind
and my hair is one with the waves

But are you suffering in my gathering and contemplation?
I pour water over the rocks and it pools below, slaking your thirst
I carry you inside to your place of honor at the table
And all now startle in delight giving welcome and praise

Such bright beauty against the iron dark rocks
Such delicacy and verve in this place where bitterness yields 
only tentatively
This is strength
And this is beauty