A Blossom Tree – HSI Muren


一颗开花的树

席慕容

如何让你遇见我

在我最美丽的时刻

为这

我已在佛前求了五百年

求佛让我们结一段尘缘

佛于是把我化做一棵树

长在你必经的路旁

阳光下

慎重地开满了花

朵朵都是我前世的盼望

当你走近

请你细听

那颤抖的叶

是我等待的热情

而当你终于无视地走过

在你身后落了一地的

朋友啊

那不是花瓣

那是我凋零的心

A Blossom Tree

By HSI Muren

How can we chance upon each other

At my most beautiful moment?

For this scene, I’ve begged Buddha, 500 years non-stopping,

For the fate we can be interweaving.

Buddha hence changes me into a tree,

Standing by a road you’ll be passing,

Blossoming, discreetly, under the sun

Every flower is my previous life’s yearning.

When you trek near, listen carefully:

The trembling leaves are my longing passion.

But you pass; you pass carelessly, Leave,

Behind you, the tree that’s shedding.

Dear, the shedding are not petals at all,

But my heart, my withered heart, crying!

  1. #1 by Sylvia on October 13, 2010 - 12:49

    Lew: this is another poem talked to me when I was young, very different from SHU Ting’s Oak Tree, do you have any preference?

  2. #2 by Lew Perin on October 14, 2010 - 13:36

    I’m not sure I have a preference anyone could rely on.

    This one, with my inadequate Chinese, at first rewarded me with its simplicity, but the oak poem had a stronger impact on me. But that could be simply because I was in a much more receptive mood when I first encountered it.

    In any case, the two make a well-matched pair of opposites!

    I couldn’t help thinking the translation of this one needed help. In the title, shouldn’t “Blossom” be “Blossoming”? And the first line, I think, doesn’t mean “How can we chance upon each other” but rather “How can I get you to meet me”, right?

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