松下問童子 言師採藥去
只在此山中 雲深不知處
Visiting a Hermit 江紹倫譯
I asked your whereabouts from your house boy in pine wood
He said you were out collecting herbs in good mood
You are surely somewhere in these hills
Where clouds roam who knows where you seek as you will
尋隱者不遇 賈島
松下問童子 言師採藥去
只在此山中 雲深不知處
Failing to Find the Hermit Jia Dao (779-843)
Beneath the pine I asked a child;
Master had gone to find herbs wild.
Teacher was just in this mountain,
Somewhere deep in the clouds’ fountain.
(tr. frank c w yue)
am grateful to Andrew W.F. Wong (Huang Hongfa) 黃宏發, your Wah Yan HK alumnus, for polishing up the following revised version:
Failing to Find the Hermit Jia Dao (779-843)
Beneath the pine, I asked of the child.
“My master’s gone for herbs grown wild,
He should just be in the mountain there,
Deep, way deep in the clouds somewhere.”