Refreshing Culture.

Poem
Translation

Translator's Details

Du Mu
| 杜牧
Cantonese, English, Mandarin Chinese

Translated Text

Stopping by Maple Woods on an Autumn Evening in the Mountains

How far I’ve come, I do not know,

The going here is steep and slow

Up rocky paths that wind and twist

On chilly hills where maples grow

 

Where clouds condense from mountain mist

I find a place the sunlight kissed

A hidden farm swims into sight

Belonging to some quietist

 

The cart unhitched to pass the night

My little horse thinks us quite right

To sit and let our senses sing

At maple trees in evening light

 

Ignited by the fall’s cold sting

Their frosty leaves are glistening

And redder than a flower in spring

And redder than a flower in spring

Translator's Comments

With apologies to Robert Frost! This was just a bit of fun I wanted to try, because it felt like there were some strong thematic connections between the Du Mu poem and Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods.

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