Two Poems by Wang Fangwen
art by Chen Hong
Translated from the Chinese by Chen Du and Xisheng Chen
Recalling the Autumn Gales and the Moonlit Brook by the Thatched Cottage
Raindrops dance on the leaves of hardy banana trees
Bamboos chant in the wind sweeping over pines
The thatched cottage in the autumn gales
Is recalling millennium-old stories
Ever remember?
On the west end of the Winter Jasmine Stream
The thatched cottage was built near the Brocade River
One hundred red peach trees were planted by hand
Observed under the sunlight were
Slender wheat, airy flowers, and purple Mandarin ducks
Bobbing up and down in the water
Appreciated at night were
The crescent moon reflected by the clouds
And the perfuming tender blossoms
Ever remember?
Next to the Ten Thousand Mile Bridge
Reed catkins resembled snowflakes
Colorful canopied boats shuttled back and forth
In the stream peppered by zephyr and moonlight
The maids washing yarns with their bare thin hands
Slashed bouquets of water droplets
Onto the robe of the Saint of Poetry 1
Ever remember?
The leaves of hardy banana trees shriveled in the twilight
The grass withered and clouds became icy-cold
A gale whirled away three layers of thatches from the cottage
Just as described in “Song of My Cottage Unroofed by Autumn Gales”
An old Phoebe zhennan tree demised in the gales and downpour
The poet looked up into the sky and sighed alone:
How to obtain thousands of spatial rooms
To soothe the despair of all the destitute scholars around the world?
Ever remember?
Reclaiming the wasteland in the south
Planting herbs and cultivating flowers
The greybeard gathered chrysanthemums near the east fence
Returned with a basket and a Schima superba cane
Trimmed the wick of a candle near the west window
Waved a Chinese painting brush to splatter ink
And produced the splendid verses making the day shine
With affections like the shining moon and memories of the ancient times
Ever remember?
The news from the Jianmen Pass about the regain of Northern Hebei
Brought the old gray-haired scholar into tears
He casually rolled up a poetry book
So ecstatic as to sing freely and drink heartily from his liquor cup
And sail downstream to Xiangyang City with young companions
When watched today
The railings and the green waves
Of the One Hundred Flowers Pond remain unchanged
To the north of the thatched cottage
Sichuan girls’ smiling faces are as beautiful as flowers
They cook pine and osmanthus tea with a clear Zen heart
If the Saint of Poetry knew it in the heavens
He would stroke his beard, lift up his head, and sing his heart out
(Composed at Du Fu’s Thatched Cottage in Chengdu City on September 12, 2018)
1 The Saint of Poetry refers to Du Fu, also known as Tu Fu, who is considered with Li Po to be one of China’s greatest poets of the Tang Dynasty.
忆草堂秋风溪月
雨打芭蕉，
竹吟松风，
茅屋在秋风里，
回忆千年旧事。
曾记否，
浣花溪西头，
结庐于锦水，
手植红桃百棵，
日看细麦轻花，鸂鸟沉浮，
夜赏云映弦月，
听嫩蕊传香。
曾记否，
万里桥边，
芦花如雪，
画舟往来，
一溪风月，
浣纱女素练纤手，
撩起一束束浪花，
淋湿了诗圣的衣裳。
曾记否，
夕阳蕉细，
草衰云寒，
秋风为谁破歌，
卷走茅屋芦草三重，
急风骤雨，老柟魂断，
诗人独自仰天叹息，
安得广厦千万，
大慰天下寒士心殇。
曾记否，
耕耘南亩，
种药培花，
老翁采菊东蓠，
提篮荷扙归来，
西窗剪烛，挥笔泼墨，
佳句令日华生光，
情思如明月留忆古往。
曾记否，
剑外收蓟北，
初闻渧泪流，
老夫漫卷诗书，喜极巅狂，
白首放歌，把酒纵欢，
携青春结伴，直下襄阳。
今观夫，
百花潭上，
水槛苍波依旧，
草堂北邻，
川女笑嫣如花，
松桂煮茶禅心澄朗，
诗圣九天有知，
当捋须仰首放怀吟唱。
(2018年9月12日于成都杜甫草堂)
In Search of Roots at Mount Phoenix
Phoenixes are chirping and a wind rolling from the south
A cloud roaming around the mountaintop to discover its root
And to search in the billions of tiny thin fragrant stems
The sweat shed by the ancestors on the rice seedlings
Immature reeds flourish and the Mat Perfume River turbulently roars
A common tiger butterfly is tripping on the spindrifts
Inside each of the glistening ripples
There is amazingly elegant music from the rites of the Zhou Dynasty
A clear spring gurgles
The leaves of pink lotuses cover the Virtue-Nourishing Pond
An autumn frog lifted up its head
Chanting The Book of Songs loudly on a green lotus leaf
That fallen three-millennium-old large mulberry tree
Hand-planted by the ancestors
Is luxuriant as always
Reclining undressed next to the Saint Water Bridge
An autumn silkworm is swinging under its leaves
Weaving long splendid Chinese brocades
All are deities on the high Canonization Altar
The flocking phoenixes are all reborn ancient saints
The two rows of candles emit eternal flames
Like the flare in darkness birthed from the ancestors’ hearts
Flipping over and reading the wooden name plates
That have hung on time for three millennia
Bronze chimes abruptly produce ringing sounds
With every melody calling for their return
Inside the blood surges the fire from the King’s heart
Thatches lyrically chant with the autumn breeze on the eaves
Dancing grass-leather skirts effuse the body scent of the maidens
Around the camp fire they all indulge in their human nature
A poem is dripping from my lips
Just like the September golden-chrysanthemum-covered mountains
Set up a rite and foreground the union between the ancestors and me
Would they arrive from somewhere in the mist of time and space?
(Composed at the Temple of Emperor Zhou in Qishan County on September 19, 2018)
凤凰山寻根
凤凰啾啾，南风自飘，
一朵岫云漫过山顶寻根，
在亿万株细小的香茎里，
寻觅祖先滴在禾下的汗水。
蒹葭苍苍，茵香河汤汤，
一只虎斑蝶在浪花上追逐，
每一朵粼粼的波光里，
都有周礼的雅音妙乐。
清泉汩汩，
润德池粉荷田田，
一只秋蛙仰首，
在碧叶上响亮的吟诵《诗经》。
那倒下的三千年的扶桑，
先祖手植，仍枝繁叶茂，
裸躺在圣水桥畔，
一只秋蚕荡在枝叶上，
吐出长长的华夏锦绣。
高高的封神台上，皆是神明，
凤凰成群，都是涅槃重生的先圣，
两排灯烛永昼不灭，
如祖先从黑暗分娩的心火。
翻看姓氏的木牌，
挂在时间上三千年，
青铜编钟宕然齐鸣，
每个音符都呼唤着归来…
血液里澎湃着王的心火，
茅草唱着秋风在屋檐上抒情，
草皮裙舞出少女的裸香
篝火里一齐放纵人性。
一首诗，自唇边滴落，
如九月满山的金菊，
布好道场，把自已与祖先的团聚布置成近景，
冥冥时空能否抵达？
(2019年9月19日于岐山周王庙)
Wang Fangwen is a member of China Writers Association, a member of the Poetry Institute of China, and a permanent member of the World Congresses of Poets. She is the President of the International Poetry Committee of the World Silk Road Forum of the United Nations, the President of the Silk Road International Poets Federation, and the Editor-in-Chief of the World Poets journal. She is the winner of Chekhov’s Literature Medal, Russia, the Sixth Bing Xin Essay Award, and so on. She has published eleven poetry collections, and some of her poems have been translated into English, Spanish, and other languages.
Chen Du holds a master’s degree in Biophysics from Roswell Park Cancer Institute, SUNY at Buffalo, and another in Radio Physics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In collaboration with Xisheng Chen, she has translated five poetry collections and one poetry chapbook, including Middle-Aged Man’s Self-Portrait by Yan An, Low Flight by Wang Jibing, and All Silence by Zuo You (with co-translator Yuyang Xie). Chen Du and Xisheng Chen’s co-translation of Yan An’s poetry collection, A Naturalist’s Manor, was published by Chax Press and shortlisted for the 2022 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize, administered by the American Literary Translators Association. Their co-translation of Yan An’s poetry collection, Rock Arrangement, was a runner-up for Carnegie Mellon University Press’s 2025 Literary Translation Prize and has been published by Carnegie Mellon University Press in October 2026.
Xisheng Chen is a Chinese American linguist, lexicologist, ESL grammarian, translator, and educator with over four decades of professional translation experience. He was the top scorer in English in the National College Entrance Examination of Jiangsu Province and earned both his BA and MA from Fudan University, Shanghai. He also holds a Mandarin Healthcare Interpreter Certificate from City College of San Francisco. His professional career has included work as a translator for Shanghai Television Station’s Evening English News Program, lecturer at Jiangnan University in Wuxi, China, and adjunct professor in the Departments of English and Social Sciences at Trine University (formerly Tri-State University) in Angola, Indiana. Over the course of his career, Chen has published numerous translations across a wide range of fields in newspapers and academic journals in China and internationally. He currently works at Tesla in Fremont, California, and also as a freelance translator for JTG Inc., contributing to translation projects for the United States Department of Justice.
Chen Hong 陈红, a poet based in Xi’an, China, is a member of the Poetry Institute of China and a Secretary-General of the Silk Road International Poets Federation.
